Anduril buys Popoto Modem for undersea communications

Anduril announced on 2 October that it had acquired Massachusetts underwater acoustics company Popoto Modem. The buyer says Popoto’s technology enables underwater mesh networking between autonomous vehicles, surface vessels and other fleet assets. Anduril had already worked with the company for more than a year, integrating its acoustic modems into maritime products. Anduril Popoto announcement.

Anduril named its Copperhead family of autonomous underwater vehicles as the immediate integration priority. It aims to support formations of vehicles controlled by one operator, with communications keeping each platform connected. The acquisition adds specialist hardware to Anduril’s existing software and maritime systems. Anduril’s account describes the technology as affordable and capable of persistent communication, but the announcement provides no comparative price table or independently measured range and latency results. Those claims remain the buyer’s assessment. The concrete development is the acquisition of a communications supplier and a stated plan to scale its integration into the underwater vehicle portfolio. Anduril Popoto announcement.