U.S. troops test Anduril’s Heimdal drone sensor on southern border

U.S. Army soldiers on the southern border have set up an Anduril-built Heimdal Mobile Trailer Kit, a towable counter-drone sensor system, for testing near Chaparral, New Mexico, according to photos and captions released by the U.S. military.

Troops from the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Mobile Brigade Combat Team, put the trailer in place on Oct. 21 as part of Joint Task Force-Southern Border’s mission under Operation Ardent Vanguard.

The military said the testing supports efforts to intercept suspected illegal drone flights near the border. It did not say how long the trailer will stay in New Mexico, how many Heimdal units the task force has, or whether the system has already been used to detect real drones there.

Heimdal is the sensor core of a counter-drone fly-away kit that U.S. Northern Command bought from Anduril and took delivery of in September 2025 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The trailer combines radar, thermal cameras and a pan-and-tilt unit that turns continuously through 360 degrees, and the components work together on their own to find and track targets, Northern Command said when the kit was certified.

The full kit pairs Heimdal with Anduril’s Anvil interceptor drones and launch box, the Pulsar electronic warfare system that detects and jams drone radio signals, and the Wisp infrared sensor, which uses AI to watch a wide area in every direction. Anduril has also won Pentagon work on that interceptor side, including a $250 million contract for drone interceptors.

The New Mexico setup came a year to the day after Heimdal’s first major deployment. On Oct. 21, 2025, the trailer was unloaded from a C-130 at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, where an 11-person team from Northern Command and the 21st Space Base Delta used the kit for a week to guard the base and earn its operational certification.

“Moving beyond an advisory role, we now have a team with equipment that is able to rapidly deploy,” said Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of U.S. Northern Command, at the time.

Drone activity on the border has kept the system in demand. In the 30 days before a counter-drone exercise at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, that ended in late September, Joint Task Force-Southern Border recorded 378 drone detections, 75 turnbacks, 15 takedowns and one captured drone, Breaking Defense reported, citing task force commander Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor. Anduril’s fly-away kit, including Heimdal, was among the systems shown at that exercise, where the U.S. military also put Ukraine-tested interceptor drones through border tests.

Officials said most drones crossing the border are commercial quadcopters flown for reconnaissance in support of human trafficking, and no drone with a lethal payload has been confirmed crossing so far. U.S. Northern Command says it works alongside the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection within “narrowly defined authorities” on the mission.