Palmer Luckey, the guy who turned virtual reality into a household name with Oculus, is now shaking up the battlefield with Anduril Industries, his defense tech startup that’s throwing punches at the old-school military giants with a slick, AI-powered vision. His latest creation, the Fury unmanned fighter jet, is a stunning testament to his vision—a sleek, pilot-free wonder that screams next-gen warfare while flexing some seriously impressive engineering chops.
Photo credit: Stratolaunch / Julian Guerra / Stratolaunch / Julian Guerra
Stratolaunch announced that the Talon-A2 completed its second hypersonic flight and recovery in March 2025, after its first in December 2024. These flights, completed over the Pacific Ocean, saw the Talon-A2 achieve speeds in excess of Mach 5 (about 3,836 mph or 6,174 km/h at sea level) and land autonomously at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
You’ve seen the Bolt-M drone and autonomous Barracuda cruise missiles, now check out what Palmer Luckey’s Anduril Industries is cooking up next: Copperhead. This is a family of high-speed Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), and the Copperhead-M is the munition variant, a torpedo-like capability designed for autonomous deployment, which is pretty groundbreaking.
Greg Leyh, creator of the 110,000 volt Lorentz Gun, unveils his latest creation: the Lorentz Plasma Cannon. Put simply, the latter is a directed energy weapon that literally lets you throw a lightning bolt at someone.
HUXWRX’s 3D-printed titanium FLOW 556 Ti suppressor not only sounds cool, but is fully functional. It features the company’s patented Flow-Through Technology, which virtually eliminates blowback as well as toxic gas that can affect weapon system performance and shooter health.
Concept Crafted Creations built a 3D-printed water gun capable of shooting ice bullets, but this isn’t a project that most will be able to complete at home during the weekend. The main reason being that it requires several other parts, like a PVC air tank for propulsion.
Gavin Free and Daniel Gruchy, better known as The Slow Mo Guys, joined Kentucky Ballistics to capture the muzzle flash of a monstrous 950 JDJ rifle cartridge at 100,000 fps in ultra slow motion.
Northrop Grumman’s M230LF Dual Feed Bushmaster Chain Gun boasts two ammunition feed paths for the first time and can easily change rounds at the flip of a switch. It’s currently at Technology Readiness Level 6, enabling the capability to undergo live fire demonstrations in early 2025.
Palmer Luckey’s Anduril Industries unveils a new line of fully autonomous Barracuda cruise missiles: Barracuda-100M, Barracuda-250M, and Barracuda-500M. These air-breathing, software-defined expendable Autonomous Air Vehicles (AAVs) boast advanced autonomous behaviors and other software-defined capabilities.
