The UK’s AI Borders: Anduril’s Autonomous Surveillance Towers

By researcher Samuel Storey, hosted by the Migrants’ Rights Network

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On the South-East coast of England, an elusive and secretive physical AI border is being implemented in the form of Anduril Maritime Sentry Towers. 

Criminalising people arriving via irregular routes has been a number one priority for successive UK governments. These silent, ever-watching towers are a physical marker of where the Hostile Environment begins. The 5.5 meter tall towers are fitted with radar as well as thermal and electro-optical imaging sensors which continuously scan the sea horizon: scanning for people seeking safety in the UK. 

The towers are not neutral. They are active agents in an increasingly automated system of border apartheid. They are designed to filter, categorise and repel those deemed as “undesirable”. 

The towers are operated by an AI detection system called ‘Lattice OS’. This operating system is marketed as defence with the intention of creating a “shared real-time understanding of the environment.” It autonomously pieces together data from thousands of sensors and data sources into a common operating picture. Through machine learning, it integrates Anduril’s network of hardware and sensor data, be they AI drones or towers, to track movement patterns, including migrants in border landscapes, for automated surveillance.

While the exact deployment and use of ASTs in the UK is difficult to determine, so far ten, including two which were previously deployed, have been identified between Hastings and Margate, where people seeking asylum via the Channel often land. 

However, the Home Office has been resistant to share the details of ASTs and other forms of surveillance publicly, stating: “of the requested information could aid the criminals seeking to facilitate these dangerous small boat crossings by informing organised criminal gangs about the technology being deployed against them, enabling them to develop countervailing activity to increase their likelihood of success, support their planning and inform new tactics and routings.” Therefore, pinning down the specifics of where these towers are located has been carried out through open source investigation techniques, first-hand accounts, and on-the-ground fieldwork.

Cloud First

Since 2013, the UK Government has enforced a ‘Cloud First’ policy for all technological decisions, dictating that quote: “public sector organisations should default to Public Cloud first, using other solutions only where this is not possible”. In November 2023, the Home Office awarded a successive cloud computing contract to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to the tune of £450 million. According to a response to an FOI submitted by the Migrants’ Rights Network in September 2024 in relation to how eVisa data is stored and gathered, the Home Office stated: 

“eVisa application data is stored on the Home Office data platform. The data platform is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) the use of which is managed by a dedicated team within the Home Office.”

Therefore, it could be the case that AWS is used to store other data within the immigration system, including data collected and processed by Anduril Sentry Towers. Anduril makes use of the AWS Marketplace to conduct tests with Lattice OS for potential customers. This likely indicates that AWS is used to host Anduril data once long-term contracts are formalised. Amazon does not publicly disclose the exact locations of its data centres, providing only general information about its infrastructure through the announcement of “regions” and “availability zones”. AWS data centres instead operate under holding companies. According to the Data Center Map, Amazon has three estimated data centres in their ‘London’ region. Furthermore, Home Office data collected via the ASTs could be hosted and operated from these very locations.

However, it could also be the case that Oracle is being used. Oracle and Anduril have a partnership to bring Lattice to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and OCI Roving Edge Infrastructure globally. 

U.S. – Mexico border: A blueprint of border militarisation

ASTs form the algorithmic backbone of a “smart wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border and constantly watch migrants as they attempt to cross the border. These towers fit into a ‘virtual wall’ that extends 100 miles into the US interior and quickly alert border officials to the presence of people attempting to seek safety in the country: in just one month in 2022, it alerted border agents to 171 migrants crossing into Texas, where they were subsequently detained.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been meticulously mapping the geography of surveillance along this border for years and inspired the methodology used as part of this investigation: by making trips along the border, learning from the community, and mapping and documenting the technology installed there. To date, they have mapped 563 surveillance towers along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Tech companies like Anduril and the U.S. Government operate under the humanitarian guise of “stopping human traffickers” and saving lives. Similarly, the Home Office has been reluctant to share the details of ASTs on the basis it may place migrants in “even greater jeopardy by making them less easy to detect by UK and French patrols engaged in Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) operations.” However, these humanitarian-esque claims quickly fall apart when the Global North and defence companies militarise borders to “protect themselves against the mobility of people from the [sic] global south.” This is particularly evident given the fact successive UK governments have implemented legislation which effectively punishes those forced to make the dangerous journey across the Channel who are largely from the Global South. 

Constructing the ‘threat’

The name Anduril itself gives clues about the technology’s intent: named after the Elvish sword from Lord of the Rings, the ‘Flame of the West’ is a symbol of the ‘courageous’ fight against ‘dark forces’. It reinforces the “white supremacist fantasy where non-white monstrous Others besiege (white) humanity.”

In the U.S., Anduril’s surveillance towers are part of a ‘defence’ around “bodies classifed as threats to the US nation” and hindering freedom to move through arrest, incarceration and deportation in the name of security. In the UK, this approach is applied against the constructed ‘threat’ of so-called ‘small boats’. The term ‘small boats’ itself has evolved from a neutral description of small sea vessels to a politically charged term to dehumanise people seeking safety in the UK, and depict them as a security threat. 

As the new Border Security Bill makes it way through Parliament and in wake of successive cruel anti-migrant policies, people seeking safety are increasingly framed in relation to ‘terrorism’ and ultimately dehumanised. Introducing ASTs and other defence companies into border regimes is central to this mission by turning people crossing the Channel as both threats to be surveilled and as data to be harvested. However, how and where this data is used is unclear. As of April 2025, we are awaiting responses to multiple FOIs in order to ascertain if the data gathered by ASTs and other border technology is being used as evidence in asylum cases. 

The UK’s deadly border apartheid 

ASTs and other technologies constitute a militarised global apartheid. This refers to the use of militarised border technologies and policies to control and restrict the movements of migrants, including refugees and people seeking asylum. New apartheid apparatus has many violent implications for people seeking safety including by pushing them into more dangerous routes. We can see this in real-time  at the US-Mexico border, where these form part of deterrence infrastructure that shifts “migration routes into more rugged and deadly terrain” to such a degree that they have led to “an increase in migrant mortality”.

Given the implicit and stated aims of the Maritime Sentry Tower alone, it is not difficult to realise that the UK Government has utilised these towers as part of a border apartheid strategy, employing this AI surveillance assemblage to further militarise the southern maritime border.

Despite Home Office claims that these towers constitute humanitarian intervention, in an FOI response to Samuel Storey’s request in March 2024 they exempted themselves from disclosing the details of tower locations and contracts on the basis that: 

“Disclosure of the requested information could aid the criminals seeking to facilitate these dangerous small boat crossings by informing organised criminal gangs about the technology being deployed against them, enabling them to develop countervailing activity to increase their likelihood of success, support their planning and inform new tactics and routings. Migrants may be placed in even greater jeopardy by making them less easy to detect by UK and French patrols engaged in Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) operations.”

Similar to the impact of ASTs on the US-Mexico border, the Home Office’s response acknowledges the role that increased border surveillance has on violence and migrant deaths. It is no secret that increased surveillance and policing at borders pushes migrants into more remote and dangerous crossing points while forcing them to increasingly rely on intermediaries (so-called people smugglers). As ASTs become increasingly embedded along the English coastline, the ‘desert of the sea’ in the form of the English Channel, may increasingly emerge as its own lethal frontier. In some ways, it already has. In 2024, a record number of people lost their lives attempting to cross the Channel, as reported by the UN’s Missing Migrant Project.

Despite this, the current UK Government is further entrenching border apartheid by establishing a Border Security Command, and soon to be followed by a Border Security Bill. The Bill will implement “new counter-terror-style powers” to dismantle ‘small boat crossings’, despite evidence that greater militarisation merely increases the need for intermediaries, and pushes migrants to attempt more dangerous journeys.

Ghost drones

It is no secret that the Home Office has drone contracts in order to ‘monitor’ the Channel. One of the most infamous contracts is with Tekever, a Portuguese defence company which specialises in unmanned aircraft systems, which stated the Home Office uses the drones to “help prevent illegal migration” in 2021. Last year, it was reported the Government was increasing its drone surveillance operations although the specifics have been difficult to obtain.

Alongside our investigation into ASTs, we are also trying to get confirmation that other Anduril products are in use. The ‘Ghost’ platform is described by Anduril as an “expeditionary, quiet, and modular” unmanned aerial system (UAS). It is an autonomous drone designed to operate in “challenging environments”. CNN reported in 2023 that the UK Home Office had access to two of these drones, with reports they are part of a £6.7 million deal signed in 2021 with the Ministry of Defence.

However, in a response to an FOI submitted by the Researcher, the Home Office simply stated: “The Home Office does not hold this information. Anduril is not contracted to deliver this particular technology/service.” We are currently awaiting the Home Office’s response to an internal review regarding their response to an FOI response on Anduril Ghost Drones. 

What next?

These towers (and their AI algorithms) do not make seeking asylum safer. They enforce border apartheid and exclusion: acting as a first port of entry into the UK’s digital hostile environment. While ASTs and other forms of border securitisation such as drones raise important questions about the potentially deadly consequences for migrants, they should also make us question the wider encroachment and normalisation of surveillance (and tech companies) in our day-to-day lives. Ultimately, surveillance is being implemented without consent, and we have a right to demand transparency and the ability to scrutinise this technology, and what it means for human rights. 

Researcher Samuel Storey and MRN are trying to map the state of surveillance on the UK’s coast. However, in an increasingly opaque policy landscape where the State and their friends at tech companies attempt to shield themselves from scrutiny, trying to raise awareness of this is not without its challenges. 

As of April 2025, we understand there are eight towers in operation between Hastings and Margate: Fairlight Coastguard Station, Dungeness Lighthouse, Hythe Ranges East Lookout, Shorncliffe Army Camp, Capel le-Ferne Cliffs, Dover Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, Walmer & Kingsdown Golf Club, and Ramsgate Port, with a ninth just outside Lydd Ranges near Jury’s Gap, and a tenth at Hythes Ranges West Lookout  which have either been dismantled or relocated. These are just the towers we are aware of and it is possible there are others in operation. 

To date, 17 Freedom of Information Requests have been submitted as part of this research project. You can access more details on the status and locations of the towers and the FOI responses via this map Samuel Storey created.

That’s why we are asking the Government to be transparent about the nature of these contracts, where the towers are located and the potential impact on people seeking safety. 

Firstly, we are asking for confirmation on whether data collected through the towers has or will be used to determine asylum cases or in criminal cases involving ‘irregular migration’. This is particularly important as the Border Security Bill makes its way through Parliament. 

Secondly, we are awaiting a response from the Government in relation to each tower, details of any Data Protection Impact Assessments and Equality Impact Assessments, privacy safeguards, data-sharing agreements and information on the involvement of private companies in this particular bit of the UK’s border. 

You can help us by:

1. Saying No to Contract Renewal

The militarisation of borders and use of surveillance technology against people seeking safety has gone largely unnoticed and unchallenged. We want to change that.

In line with the FOI response to Anna Christoforou, it is likely the current contract for the towers is up for renewal in June 2025. However, the Home Office has consistently refused to disclose the details of its contracts with Anduril. This deliberately hides the true scale of its surveillance operations. We need greater transparency, public scrutiny and active discussion around the implementation of this surveillance.

You can help us hold the Home Office and Anduril to account, and help us push back against the prospect of a contract renewal. To do that, we first need to raise awareness of these towers both in the communities around the towers and on a national level by:

• Share the film, campaign materials with the hashtag #StopBorderApartheid to spread the word
• If you live in an area that is home to one of these surveillance towers, write to your local MP to share your concerns in addition to asking them to write to the Home Office to enquire about the contract renewal
• Keep MRN and Samuel Storey updated on your progress in addition to any support you might need in organising a local campaign

2. Track down the towers

The Home Office has been reluctant to share the locations of the towers so far. That means that any information we have on the location of these towers has been done by manually identifying, mapping and logging them in a similar way to efforts in the U.S.- Mexico border. 

We suspect there may be more ASTs on the UK border, so if you think you may have spotted one then get in touch by emailing [email protected] 

3. Making a Subject Access Request

We want to understand if the data collected by these surveillance technologies has been used, is currently being used, or is intended to be used to influence or determine asylum cases for people seeking asylum who crossed the Channel. 

If you came to the UK via Channel crossing after June 2022 (when the Home Office awarded the contract to Anduril), and are concerned that your image was captured by one of these towers, you can submit a Subject Access Request (SAR). 

People are able to request information that is held about themselves through a SAR. To make a SAR to the Home Office, you can fill out an online application form or email the Home Office at [email protected]. More information on SARs from the Home Office can be found here and tips on submitting a SAR can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

Updates

We are in the process of organising screenings of Samuel Storey’s film, so keep your eyes peeled for screening tickets.

Check out MRN’s other work on the Digital Hostile Environment.