Ghost-X

Ghost-X is Anduril Industries' vertical take-off and landing reconnaissance drone, awarded to the company on a $16.8 million sole-source contract by the US Army in April 2026 without competitive bidding. The award covers company-level small unmanned aircraft systems and is notable for bypassing the standard open competition process, a decision that has drawn scrutiny from rival manufacturers. The drone carries Trillium HD45LP electro-optical and infrared sensors, giving it persistent wide-area surveillance capability.

Ghost-X sits within Anduril's broader family of autonomous systems that also includes the Arsenal-1 weapons carrier and the Lattice AI operating system. The company has positioned itself as the primary US autonomous systems vendor for the Army and Marine Corps. The sole-source justification reflects both the Army's urgency to field ISR capability and Anduril's growing status as a preferred autonomous systems supplier, bypassing rivals who argue the design spec was written around Anduril's product.

The contract feeds a broader pattern of the US military concentrating autonomous drone procurement with a small number of trusted technology companies rather than distributing risk across the defence industrial base. Ghost-X's deployment at company level signals the Army's intent to push ISR capability down to the smallest tactical unit, matching the operational model Ukrainian forces pioneered with commercial FPV drones.