Anduril Industries has demonstrated its Battle Manager prototype for the Guam Defense System during Valiant Shield 2026, testing the software against a simulated threat environment while integrating air and missile defence assets from across the US armed forces.
The demonstration came less than six months after Anduril received a US Army contract to develop the prototype for operations in the Western Pacific. During Valiant Shield, the company integrated systems from the US Army, Air Force, Navy and Missile Defense Agency through a single command-and-control environment powered by its Lattice software platform.
The exercise provides a practical indication of how software-defined command and control is being developed to manage increasingly complex layered air and missile defence architectures. Rather than requiring operators to manually correlate information from separate systems, the Battle Manager is intended to combine sensor, weapon and inventory data into a common operational picture.
Linking sensors and interceptors
During the exercise, Anduril said Lattice fused data from participating systems into a single joint track picture. The Battle Manager then assessed the available capacity of different missile defence assets and generated recommendations on which system could be used against a particular threat.
That process incorporated information about weapons status and interceptor inventories across air, land and maritime systems. According to Anduril, real-time optimisation was used to consider both engagement requirements and the need to conserve available interceptor stocks.
This is increasingly significant for integrated air and missile defence. The challenge is not solely detecting a threat or providing an interceptor capable of defeating it; commanders also need to determine which available weapon offers an appropriate response without unnecessarily consuming limited higher-value munitions.
Operators shape development
Anduril personnel worked with military operators for 11 days during Valiant Shield, training users and testing the prototype against simulated threats using operational command-and-control, sensor and weapon systems already deployed in the region.
Engineers also made changes to the Battle Manager during the exercise based on operator feedback, with Verity Integrated Systems supporting the development effort. Anduril said the capability will now undergo further refinement and testing over the coming months.
The demonstration does not mean the prototype has reached operational deployment. It does, however, show the US military testing a different approach to managing complex defensive networks, with software used to connect systems that may have been developed independently and operated by different services.
For defence buyers, that interoperability issue is likely to become increasingly important. Layered air defence now encompasses radars, command systems and interceptors operating across several domains, meaning procurement decisions must consider how effectively individual platforms can contribute to a wider network rather than assessing their performance in isolation.
