The Wire · live GRID-REF 37°47′N 122°25′W
DISPATCH 03/26 · 11 Sep 2026
BattlePolicy
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Lexicon · USA

Anduril Bolt-M

Anduril's man-portable VTOL loitering munition — AI-guided, returnable if no strike, and the U.S. Marine Corps' first squad-level autonomous organic precision fires system, ordered under the $249M OPF-L program.

A man-portable, VTOL autonomous loitering munition built by Anduril Industries — designed to give squad-level warfighters AI-guided organic precision fires with a returnable airframe, fielded by the U.S. Marine Corps under the OPF-L program and entering operational service in mid-2026.

Overview

The Bolt-M is a battery-powered quadcopter loitering munition developed by Anduril Industries that fuses machine-vision autonomous guidance with a modular, operator-swappable warhead architecture. Unlike improvised first-person-view (FPV) strike drones, Bolt-M flies, tracks, and engages targets under AI supervision, requiring the operator only to authorize four simplified decisions — where to look, what to follow, how to engage, and when to strike. If no lawful target is confirmed, the vehicle can be recalled and stowed for reuse. Built from the ground up for producibility, Bolt-M occupies a deliberate cost band between expendable commercial FPV drones and high-end anti-armor loitering munitions, positioning it as an "affordable attritable" for the squad fight.

🔒 The full Anduril Bolt-M file is for BattlePolicy Pro members. Below the line: development history, design and capabilities, variants, the combat record, advantages and limitations, comparable systems, outlook, the full specifications table, our sourcing, and the analyst assessment — procurement, suppliers and the BattlePolicy verdict. Unlock the full file with BattlePolicy Pro →

Below this point

  • Development
  • Design & capabilities
  • Variants
  • Combat record / operational use
  • Advantages
  • Drawbacks / limitations
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  • Comparable systems — analyst view
  • Analyst note
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