Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone

Too complicated.

My understanding is that you have an defensive area with ~20 of the hangers scattered around.

  1. !!Incoming threat!!
  2. LAUNCH ALL THE DRONES,
  3. One intercepts,
  4. Other loiter a while in case of additional threats,
  5. Remaining drones return to base.

Get the operational advantage of having many vehicles in the air, all controllable by one operator, but you recover those not used.

I guess this is the best scenario for this as far as I can tell, but as another commenter mentioned, how is this better than standard small missiles such as a normal "Iron Dome" style system?

Having them "in the air" waiting doesn't seem to be that big of a help when your missile launcher can have the rocket in the air about as fast after an intercept command is issued. And small missiles are and will continue to get cheaper.

Maybe the price calculation gets better for guaranteeing an intercept? Since either you assume Drone/Missile #1 is going to hit or you fire more just in case that first one misses, because waiting to see if you have a hit before firing another is not an option, and given enough delay and fast communication you could have the second drone abort and fly back after a confirmed intercept.

further you'd want to inspect them all after recovery, fix breakages, and refuel them. or as you say, just sabot one out into the sky and have it chase or die.

I learnt that tactic from that well known documentary, Stargate Atlantis.