AWS, Anduril debut new tactical data center offering listed on DOD’s cloud marketplace

Amazon Web Services and Anduril debuted a new co-product offering Tuesday that officials billed as purpose-built for military commanders and first responders who need cloud-grade computing, storage and AI capabilities in remote areas, or places where connectivity is severely degraded or denied.

During the AWS Summit, experts from both companies demonstrated the hardware and briefed a small group of reporters on the underlying technologies that are already deployed in real-world warfare.

The assets — which combine AWS Outposts that can run apps and store data locally using the same tools accessible in the cloud with Anduril’s Menace-I ruggedized mobile data centers that can deploy in extreme tactical environments — are notably being made available to Defense Department users via the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) Marketplace.

“Sometimes we get stuck at the end of the engineering piece, and then the scale as to how we get it into the hands of customers is hard,” said Liz Martin, AWS’ managing director and general manager for global defense. “So, we’ve thought through that already.”

Some of the near-term use cases for the new Menace-I with AWS Outposts offering include shipborne AI operations, close to realtime flight data collection and analysis, and a wide range of bandwidth-constrained military missions.

This product launch comes at a time when the U.S. military is adapting to modern threats like long-range precision missiles and enemy drones by pivoting away from centralized mega-bases and toward smaller, highly dispersed and more flexible units.

“What we are hearing from our customers in the field is a need to have their data at the edge in proximity to them, and to have that in many places where they’re fighting. We know that commercial infrastructure can be under attack, can be unavailable, and can be denied. That’s the premise for why we did Menace-I. Equally, we know that the cloud can offer significant benefits, which is why we put Outpost to connect the two,” Tom Keane, Anduril’s senior vice president of engineering, told reporters. “So, as we talk to our customers, who are down range with [Operation] Epic Fury — who are doing these tasks in the Middle East — they are asking for [this, and] they are deploying Menace-I to support these missions.”

The officials confirmed that the companies worked together for a while to ensure that the new offering could be available to DOD users through the JWCC Marketplace. Pentagon and military personnel access that digital storefront to purchase pre-vetted commercial cloud services, software, and cybersecurity tools using a massive multibillion-dollar contract vehicle.

“We’ve proven that it’s not, ‘is this possible?’ It’s ‘how can we scale this thing that we have jointly put together?’ And I think when we come back in 12 months, we will be astounded by the capabilities we’ve enabled with this engagement together,” Martin said.