- Teledyne FLIR Defense's Rogue 1 loitering munition was selected for the U.S. Army's LASSO program, with up to 130 systems delivered for test and evaluation next summer under a two-year contract.
- The Rogue 1 is a man-portable VTOL loitering munition with 12-plus mile range, 30-plus minute endurance, and anti-armor capability for Infantry Brigade Combat Teams in GPS-denied environments.
The U.S. Army has selected Teledyne FLIR Defense’s Rogue 1 loitering munition for its Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance (LASSO ) program, giving Infantry Brigade Combat Teams a man-portable precision strike weapon capable of destroying tanks and armored vehicles at ranges exceeding 12 miles without requiring a vehicle, launcher, or external support infrastructure.
The company will deliver up to 130 Rogue 1 components and systems to the Army for test and evaluation next summer under a contract with a two-year performance period. The LASSO selection follows existing deliveries of Rogue 1 to U.S. Special Operations Command under its Ground Organic Precision Strike Systems program and to the U.S. Marine Corps under its Organic Precision Fires-Light program, establishing the platform’s service record across multiple branches before the Army commitment.
The Rogue 1 is a vertical takeoff and landing loitering munition that a single soldier can carry and launch from a single tube. It requires no vehicle transport, no dedicated launcher, and no external infrastructure — a design priority that directly addresses the operational requirements of light infantry forces operating without the logistics tail that larger systems demand. The platform is optionally recoverable, meaning the operator can either commit it to a one-way strike or recall it if the target is unsuitable or the mission is aborted, preserving the system for subsequent engagements and reducing cost per deployment compared to purely expendable munitions.
Dr. JihFen Lei, president of Teledyne FLIR Defense and senior vice president of Teledyne’s Defense and Aerospace Group, connected the Rogue 1 selection to the company’s broader unmanned systems portfolio in the announcement. “The precision and autonomy of the Rogue 1 platform make it ideally suited to achieve the Army’s goals for LASSO,” Lei said. “Rogue 1 leverages our expertise delivering battle-proven UAS technology, including the widely deployed Black Hornet nano-drone, which we believe can be used with Rogue 1 in an unrivaled ‘hunter-killer’ combination.” The Black Hornet is a nano-drone widely fielded by U.S. and allied forces for close-range reconnaissance, small enough to peer around corners and through windows without exposing the operator — a natural intelligence feed for a strike munition requiring precise terminal targeting data against a moving armored vehicle.
The Rogue 1’s specifications define where it sits in the loitering munition market. Range exceeds 12 miles, flight time is greater than 30 minutes, and burst speed tops 70 miles per hour. The sensor suite combines advanced electro-optical cameras with the FLIR Boson 640+ thermal imager, providing day and night targeting capability throughout the operating envelope. A gimballed payload couples the sensor directly to the warhead, enabling the precise terminal guidance required to engage moving armored targets — a significantly harder problem than striking stationary vehicles or fixed positions. The system is designed for GPS-denied and communications-denied environments, per the company’s statement, addressing the electronic warfare conditions that NATO planners now treat as a baseline assumption for any future high-intensity conflict in Europe or the Indo-Pacific.
The anti-armor capability that LASSO specifies is the characteristic that gives Rogue 1’s Infantry Brigade Combat Team application its operational weight. Infantry units have historically lacked organic weapons capable of engaging main battle tanks at long range from positions outside direct observation distance. The Javelin anti-tank missile, the Army’s current primary infantry anti-armor system, has a maximum range of approximately 2.5 miles and requires the firing team to operate within line of sight of the target. A loitering munition with a 12-mile range can attack armor from positions completely outside the target’s direct fire envelope, approaching from the rear or top arc where protection is thinnest, without cueing the enemy to the infantry unit’s location. Against the armored force compositions that European contingency planning focuses on, that capability transforms what an infantry brigade can threaten at range and from which positions it must be countered.
Teledyne FLIR launched the Rogue 1 commercially in spring 2024, making the LASSO selection a transition from introduction to multi-service procurement across Army, SOCOM, and Marine Corps programs within approximately two years. That pace reflects both the urgency driving loitering munition acquisition across the U.S. military and the operational fit of the Rogue 1’s specific capability profile against the requirements each service has articulated. The LASSO solicitation called for a man-portable system with anti-armor capability for Infantry Brigade Combat Teams — specifications the Rogue 1 meets without requiring a modified configuration from the versions already delivered to SOCOM and the Marines.
Up to 130 systems going to the Army for test and evaluation next summer will generate the performance data that determines whether LASSO proceeds to full production. Given the platform’s service history across two existing U.S. military programs, the evaluation phase is less a first-principles capability test than a formal Army-specific validation. Infantry brigades that complete those evaluations successfully will carry something their predecessors never had: a weapon in a single tube, manageable by one soldier, that can engage and destroy a tank at 12 miles.