Atlanta-based hypersonics startup Hermeus has picked Anduril Industries to integrate its Lattice for Mission Autonomy software on the Quarterhorse Mk 2 high-Mach aircraft, the two companies announced on September 3, 2026. The deal marks the first commercial agreement in which Anduril will drop its mission-autonomy stack onto a third-party Group 5 uncrewed aircraft.
Speed meets autonomy
Quarterhorse Mk 2 is roughly F-16-sized, features a variable inlet and delta-wing design, and is powered by a modified Pratt & Whitney F100. Adding Lattice gives it an end-to-end software environment for operational analysis, threat modelling, training, mission planning, execution and post-flight debriefing. Operators will use Anduril’s Menace-T C4 system as the physical interface, keeping humans in the loop on every high-speed pass.
The 2027 flight plan
Hermeus and Anduril are already integrating the systems on the Mk 2 airframe, with the first mission-autonomy flight targeted for 2027. Mk 2.1 has already gone supersonic on a Pratt & Whitney F100 core; Mk 2.2 is designed to expand the envelope; and Mk 2.3 is aimed at higher-Mach testing around Mach 3. The ultimate goal is not a single autonomous jet but coordinated, collaborative missions of multiple high-speed aircraft operating alongside crewed platforms.
Anduril's Lattice as an ecosystem play
Lattice already underpins parts of the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, and Hermeus is leaning on the Air Force’s Autonomy Government Reference Architecture (A-GRA) to keep autonomy portable across airframes. Anduril’s data mesh also connects Army targeting nodes such as the newly awarded TITAN production platform and its expanding counter-drone systems - making Lattice one of the widest-deployed autonomy layers in U.S. defense.
Why it matters
High-Mach flight and mission autonomy have advanced in parallel, but rarely on the same airframe. If the 2027 flight test lands, Quarterhorse Mk 2 becomes a benchmark for what collaborative, human-supervised operations look like above Mach 2 - a decisive step toward the hypersonic Darkhorse operational vehicle Hermeus is pursuing next. It also builds on Mk 2.1’s first supersonic flight earlier this year.
Reporting based on coverage from Interesting Engineering, Anduril and Hermeus press releases.