The two should not be conflated: ALTIUS-600M is pitched at a roughly 3 kg warhead class, while the 700M carries a warhead reported at up to 15 kg (33 lb) — described by Anduril as comparable in effect to the anti-armor warhead on an AGM-114 Hellfire missile — out to a reported 160 km (100 miles) with about 75 minutes of endurance, figures that Anduril and multiple independent outlets have described as the largest of any loitering munition currently marketed.^4,3,5 Both variants share the same family design — flexible launch from air, ground, or maritime platforms, and operator-in-the-loop terminal targeting managed through Anduril's Lattice autonomy software — but the 700M is built specifically for standoff strikes on armored vehicles, air-defense systems, and other hardened or high-value targets rather than for pure reconnaissance.^4,6

Anduril and independent trade press consistently report three core figures for the ALTIUS-700M: a warhead of up to 15 kg (33 lb), an operational range of about 160 km (100 miles), and an endurance of roughly 75 minutes.^4,5,6 These numbers are corroborated across Anduril's own release, live-fire test coverage from The War Zone and C4ISRNET, and subsequent contract reporting, giving them higher confidence than most other specifications for this system.^4,5,12

Beyond those three figures, published dimensional data is thin. One specialty drone-catalog site lists an approximate 1.9 m length, 2.6 m wingspan, and 30 kg maximum takeoff weight for the 700M, but no primary Anduril material or major outlet reviewed for this article corroborates those numbers, so they are noted here only as an unconfirmed, lower-confidence estimate rather than an established spec.⁸ Anduril describes the warhead as modular, with the airframe able to accept different lethal and non-lethal mission kits depending on the target set, and states the munition does not require laser designation to strike a target, distinguishing its targeting approach from laser-guided precision munitions.⁴

Control follows Anduril's broader "man-in-the-loop" concept: the operator retains decisive authority over tasking and the terminal strike decision, while the ALTIUS-700M's onboard autonomy — built on Anduril's Lattice software — handles navigation, coordination with other units, and target-area behavior.⁴ Anduril states this architecture allows one operator to task and monitor multiple ALTIUS airframes on separate missions concurrently, rather than requiring one operator per munition.⁴

Area-I developed the original ALTIUS-600 as an air-launched reconnaissance and electronic-warfare-payload drone, tube-launched with deployable wings and compatible with aircraft including the AC-130, UH-60 Black Hawk, and later unmanned platforms such as the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie and MQ-1C Gray Eagle.^1,2 Anduril Industries, the California-based defense technology company founded in 2017, acquired Area-I in April 2021 and absorbed the ALTIUS line into its own hardware and autonomy portfolio.^1,13 Anduril then introduced the larger ALTIUS-700 airframe and, by around 2022, unveiled dedicated "-M" loitering-munition configurations of both the 600 and 700 series, aimed specifically at strike missions rather than pure ISR.^3,1

The ALTIUS-700M's first widely reported live-fire demonstration took place in September 2023 at the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, where Anduril conducted six total missions — three with inert rounds and three with live warheads — against mock targets including a simulated Russian Buk-M2 (NATO reporting name SA-17 Grizzly) surface-to-air system, scoring hits across all engagements.^5,12 Anduril described the event as the first full test of the 700M from launch through target impact, and an Anduril spokesman characterized the resulting capability as one "an adversary... would not want to see flying overhead."^5,12

Army aviators carried out further integration testing through 2025 and 2026: a September 2025 test saw airborne ALTIUS-700 launches from a UH-60 Black Hawk, and in late February 2026, during the Concept Focused Warfighting Experiment 26 (CFWE26) at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, Army aviators from the DEVCOM Aviation & Missile Center executed the type's first rocket-powered launch from an AH-64E Apache attack helicopter, including while the Apache was in forward flight.^6,7 Anduril and Army officials framed the Apache integration as a manned-unmanned teaming capability, letting a crewed attack helicopter cue a longer-range strike without exposing the aircraft itself to additional risk.⁶

The United Kingdom announced a roughly £30 million (about $39 million) order in March 2025 to supply Ukraine with Anduril ALTIUS-600M and ALTIUS-700M systems, funded as part of continued UK military support following international talks on Ukraine's defense.¹¹ Anduril has publicly shown footage it says documents an ALTIUS-600M night strike against Russian equipment, and the company has stated its Altius drones have "hit a significant number of Russian targets."¹⁰

No independent, dated account of a specific ALTIUS-700M strike — as opposed to the 600M or the Altius family generally — was identified in the sources reviewed for this article.

Ukraine has received Altius systems, including the 700M, through UK-funded donations, with combat use claimed by Anduril and disputed reliability reported elsewhere, as detailed above.^11,10 The United States Army has tested the ALTIUS-700M extensively as part of its Launched Effects family of systems, including ground-launch and, as of 2025–2026, Black Hawk and Apache airborne-launch integration trials, though public reporting reviewed for this article does not confirm a large-scale U.S. fielding contract specific to the 700M as of mid-2026.^6,14 Taiwan's government disclosed in January 2026 that it plans to procure 1,554 ALTIUS-700M munitions and 478 ALTIUS-600ISR reconnaissance drones, under a U.S. Foreign Military Sale package valued at roughly $1.1 billion notified to Congress in December 2025; as of this writing the sale is approved but deliveries have not been reported as complete.^9,15

Against its own smaller sibling, the Anduril Bolt-M, the ALTIUS-700M represents a different design class entirely: Bolt-M is a roughly 6–7 kg, backpack-portable quadcopter carrying a warhead of about 1.4 kg (3 lb) out to a 20 km class of range with around 40 minutes of endurance, while the 700M is a heavier, container-launched fixed-wing round built for far greater standoff range and a warhead roughly ten times as large.¹⁶ Anduril effectively fields both ends of the loitering-munition spectrum — Bolt-M for dismounted infantry engaging targets at close range, and the ALTIUS-700M for vehicle-, ship-, or aircraft-launched strikes against high-value targets at a much greater distance.

Compared with the Russian ZALA Lancet — a roughly 12 kg-class munition carrying about a 3 kg warhead some 40 km with roughly 40 minutes of endurance — the ALTIUS-700M is reported to fly four times farther and loiter nearly twice as long, while carrying a warhead about five times heavier.¹⁷ Against the U.S. AeroVironment Switchblade 600, a 15 kg-class round with a roughly 9 kg Javelin-derived shaped-charge warhead, 40 km of range, and 40 minutes of endurance, the ALTIUS-700M again reports substantially greater range and endurance alongside a heavier warhead, reflecting Anduril's own framing of the 700M as the largest loitering munition marketed publicly as of its 2023 unveiling.⁵ These comparisons should be read cautiously: none of the ALTIUS-700M's headline figures have been independently flight-tested by a party other than Anduril in public reporting, whereas the Lancet and Switchblade 600 figures come from combat use and longer service histories respectively.

MASS Assessment

Because ALTIUS-700M already carries specs cards for general, performance, armament, and control (above), its MASS component scores can be explained directly against those numbers.

Range (90) is the highest of any weapon in this entire batch: at a disclosed 160 km, it dwarfs every batch peer, including its own smaller sibling Bolt-M (20 km) and MBDA's RCH170 (50 km) — the payoff of a heavier, container-launched design rather than a backpack one. Technology (90), also the batch's highest, reflects Anduril's Lattice software managing autonomous flight and multi-unit teaming, not a single hardware feature. Lethality (85) and precision (85) come from a warhead of up to 15 kg — described by Anduril as comparable in effect to an AGM-114 Hellfire — paired with operator-in-the-loop terminal targeting.

Portability (30) is deliberately the lowest score of any weapon in this batch, and it is the direct trade-off for everything above: ALTIUS-700M is a heavy, container- or ground-launched round meant for vehicle, ship, or aircraft integration, not something a dismounted soldier carries, unlike Bolt-M's 90/100 portability score for the same company's lighter sibling. Autonomy (75) and sensors (80) reflect genuine AI-assisted flight and multi-unit swarm coordination, though both trail ALTIUS-700M's own technology score slightly because independent, non-Anduril verification of these claims remains limited. Counter-measure resistance (65) sits at the upper-middle of the batch, consistent with a system built for contested environments but without full public detail on its electronic-warfare hardening.

Cost-effectiveness (60), close to but not identical with the separate 68/100 overall price-performance rating shown in the sidebar, reflects that ALTIUS-700M's advanced technology and heavy payload genuinely cost more to buy than smaller, simpler rivals — strong capability, but not a bargain.

What is the Anduril ALTIUS-700M? It is a fixed-wing, container-launched loitering munition built by Anduril, the strike-configured "M" variant of the larger ALTIUS-700 airframe, reportedly carrying up to a 15 kg (33 lb) warhead out to about 160 km (100 miles) with roughly 75 minutes of endurance.^4,5

Is ALTIUS-700M the same as ALTIUS-600M? No. The 600M is the smaller sibling, built around a roughly 3 kg warhead class; the 700M is the larger, heavier-hitting variant covered in this article. Both share the same family design and launch flexibility.^3,4

Who uses the ALTIUS-700M? Ukraine has received ALTIUS-700M and -600M systems through UK-funded orders, the U.S. Army has tested it extensively within its Launched Effects program, and Taiwan has an approved but undelivered Foreign Military Sale for 1,554 units as of early 2026.^11,6,9

Is ALTIUS-700M part of the U.S. Army's LASSO program? No. LASSO (Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance) is a separate Army effort that selected Teledyne FLIR Defense's Rogue 1 in 2026. The ALTIUS-700M instead sits within the Army's broader Launched Effects family of systems, informally tied to a medium-range (LE-MR) role.¹⁴