Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR) announced Halo, the commercial variant of a dual-use autonomous vertical takeoff and landing aircraft platform developed jointly with defense technology company Anduril Industries.

Anduril separately unveiled Thunder, the defense variant of the same platform, at the Farnborough International Airshow. Both variants share the same airframe, hybrid-electric powertrain and core systems, with configurable payload bays depending on mission requirements.

The platform features a series hybrid-electric powertrain and dual tiltrotors designed to vary rotor RPM across flight conditions. Archer said the aircraft can be packed into a standard shipping container for transport by air, road, rail, or sea.

Archer named Marubeni Aerospace Corporation, a subsidiary of Japanese trading company Marubeni Corporation, as a strategic launch partner for Halo. The partnership will focus on joint market research, use case identification and future introduction of the aircraft. Additional partners are expected to be announced this year.

"Currently, even in cargo transport operations that do not require onboard crew, flights are conducted with human pilots, absorbing the cost, scheduling constraints and human exposure that come with it," said Satoru Nakagawa, President and CEO of Marubeni Aerospace Corporation. "Halo's unmanned, autonomous flight capabilities can address these challenges."

Archer said Halo is designed for commercial use cases including offshore energy resupply, freight logistics, humanitarian cargo delivery and maritime operations. The company stated the platform is designed for high-volume production using commercial supply chains.

"We partnered with Anduril to take all of that knowledge and build something new: a clean-sheet aircraft in a completely different class of range, speed and payload," said Adam Goldstein, Founder and CEO of Archer.

The announcement was made at the Farnborough International Airshow. The platform builds on technologies Archer developed over eight years of its commercial eVTOL program, including aircraft design, powertrain engineering and manufacturing.