The Pentagon is betting $250 million that Anduril Industries’ futuristic-looking Roadrunner-Ms interceptor drones and electronic warfare systems will provide vital protection for U.S. troops.
The jet-powered, high-explosive Roadrunner can smash into incoming hostile drones, full-size enemy aircraft or other flying threats, destroying them and the Roadrunner itself. Alternatively, it can scout for dangers far afield and return to base for further use.
Costa Mesa-based Anduril, founded by OC entrepreneur Palmer Luckey seven years ago, is aiming to push the Department of Defense and U.S. allies into a new mode of operation that is nimbler than the slow procedures of legacy defense giants.
Luckey himself makes no secrets about how he has been steering Anduril away from an initial focus on border protection to the more lucrative military market, making it the country’s fastest-growing defense company.
“Look at me – the weapons dealer,” Luckey told podcaster and media company Pirate Wires last month. “Surprise, surprise, I want welfare for the defense industry.”
Anduril now sports a $14 billion valuation after a Series F financing round in August with speculation that a public listing may be next.
Its array of military weapons and defense systems includes underwater drones, sophisticated sensors, the Fury unmanned fighter jet and recently announced Barracuda-M cruise missiles.
Anduril says it can make efficient defense tools while saving taxpayers’ money by employing high-tech software and artificial intelligence among other innovations.
Separately, Anduril on Oct. 10 introduced Bolt, a series of lightweight, easily transportable vertical takeoff and landing drones for a variety of military missions, including the use of “lethal precision firepower” against an enemy.
Anduril told the Business Journal it is on contract to deliver the armed version to the U.S. Marine Corps.
“In round numbers, typical Bolt configurations are in the low tens of thousands of dollars,” the company said.
It noted that the Bolt can stay aloft for a period of time before striking its target, a function known as “loitering.”
Delivery Starting This Quarter
The contract announced Oct. 8 calls for the delivery of 500 Roadrunner vertical-takeoff-and landing units and Pulsar electronic warfare systems. Anduril said the units would be used “across services” without specifying the branches.
The contract will address the “growing threat” of drone attacks on U.S. forces.
While the emphasis for the Roadrunner military version has been on protecting U.S. forces against airborne attack, it can presumably also be used to defend civilian populations and protect critical infrastructure such as electric plants.
The Business Journal asked Anduril about such further possible defense uses and was waiting for a response as of press time.
Deliveries of the super-fast drones will begin in the current quarter and continue through the end of next year.
The Pulsar electronic warfare system can be integrated with aircraft to jam enemy systems, according to industry website Defense News.
Anduril earlier this month discussed a partnership with FlackTek, which is headquartered in Landrum, South Carolina, to develop and manufacture “the world’s most advanced solid rocket motor propellant machine.” The company, which says the machine will
“revolutionize” rocket motor production, has already dubbed it as the GOAT, aka Greatest of All Time.
“One of my favorite examples investing in defense manufacturing to massively reduce cost to taxpayers,” Luckey said on X, formerly Twitter.
Anduril previously announced in January 2022 that it had received a U.S. military contract that could be worth nearly $1 billion to develop anti-drone hardware and software.
The “indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract” was awarded by the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
An Anduril spokesperson would not say whether the new business announced on Oct. 8 is part of its SOCOM award, according to Defense News.
Secret Development, In Production
Anduril introduced Roadrunner last November after spending two years secretly developing it with internal funding.
“We’re selling these right now in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Luckey said at the time. “I have a clear path to make it a lot cheaper than that.”
The systems “will be deployed to operational sites in priority regions where U.S. forces face significant UAS (unmanned aerial systems) threats, further enhancing U.S. air defense capabilities at the tactical edge.”
Faster Than Traditional
Roadrunner went from an idea to a combat-validated and fieldable solution much faster than most traditional contractor timelines.
“As the world’s first recoverable explosive weapon, Roadrunner exemplifies the next-generation capability required to confront the increasingly complex threat landscape,” the company says on its website.
Anduril says it has secured nearly $350 million in contracts since the public launch of its Roadrunner and Pulsar systems, providing advanced air defense capabilities to multiple branches of the U.S. Department of Defense.
The contracts support a range of efforts, including operational deployments, system validation testing, experimentation and integration with existing defense systems, ensuring seamless performance across the services.
Palmer Luckey Mends Fences with Facebook
It looks like peace has broken out between Palmer Luckey and Facebook seven years after he left the Silicon Valley titan.
The most recent episode began when Luckey visited a project called Orion – augmented reality glasses – at Facebook parent Meta, where he met Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, who goes by the handle “Boz.”
“I mentioned this in person, but I also wanted to publicly apologize for my previous comments about your time at (then) Oculus,” Boz wrote to Luckey on X, formerly Twitter.
“I’m sorry. After reading the recent Tablet piece, I dug into some of the events that preceded my time when a different set of people, who are no longer at the company, were running the group.
It turns out I was misinformed, but that’s no excuse, and since I wasn’t involved, I should never have said anything. I’m grateful for the impact you made at the company and in developing VR overall. Looking forward to showing you more of our work in the future.”
Luckey responded, accepting Boz’s apology.
“I am infamously good at holding grudges, but Meta has changed a lot over the past 8 years,” Luckey posted on X. “The people responsible for my ouster and internal/external smear campaign aren’t even around anymore. At some point, the Ship of Theseus has sailed.”
Even Elon Musk chimed in on X to say, “This is cool to see. Mensch to mensch.”
Observers are speculating that Anduril and Meta may work together on future projects. Anduril last month announced a project with Microsoft to build super soldier combat googles for the U.S. Army.
“I have a huge amount of respect for Palmer—both for what he’s done for VR and for now achieving the rare feat of building multiple successful companies,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Tablet in a statement this month, his first regarding Luckey in several years.
“He’s an impressive free-thinker and fun to work with. I was sad when his time at Meta came to an end, but the silver lining is that his work at Anduril is going to be extremely important for our national security. I’m glad an entrepreneur of his caliber is working on these problems. I hope we can find ways to work together in the future.”
Facebook put Luckey on the map by buying Oculus VR in a $2.3 billion deal when he was 21 years old. The conservative Luckey clashed with notoriously liberal Facebook employees.
“The culture at Facebook was so inimical to the military that an employee once called the police when I parked my Humvee in the Facebook parking lot,” Luckey wrote in a 2022 Leader Board for the Business Journal.
“I realized that our military needed a company with the engineering talent of Facebook, and the patriotism of the people working on programs like Bravemind. I didn’t think I’d be the one to found that company, but life can be funny like that—Facebook fired me in 2017.
I founded Anduril Industries later that year, furious that I could no longer work on my passion—virtual reality—but suddenly free to pursue my vision for a next-generation defense contractor.”
— Peter J. Brennan
Anduril’s 5M-SF Plant Site Still Undisclosed
As defense company Anduril Industries expands, the big open question is where it will locate its giant 5-million-square-foot factory, which was announced in August.
Anduril said Aug. 7 that the new facility “Arsenal-1 will be more than 5 million square feet of production space that will employ thousands of people and is designed to produce tens of thousands of autonomous military systems annually.”
Since then, a Pentagon contract for 500 drones and Pulsar electronic warfare systems may be adding to the space question.
Anduril and its growing number of business units already have several sites around the country, including Mississippi and Rhode Island.
The company occupies 180,000 square feet across 1435 Hills Place and 1401 Hills Place in Atlanta, according to real estate site CoStar.
Anduril’s headquarters is at the former Los Angeles Times Orange County bureau and printing facility in Costa Mesa. It runs about 640,000 square feet.
—Kevin Costelloe