Anduril Industries, Inc. is an American defense company specializing in autonomous systems. It was founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey alongside investors and founders associated with Palantir and SpaceX. Anduril's strategy includes providing the U.S. Department of Defense with technology that Silicon Valley firms[which?] have eschewed due to their controversial military applications, including artificial Intelligence and robotics. Anduril's major products include unmanned aerial systems (UAS), counter-UAS (CUAS), semi-portable autonomous surveillance systems, and networked command and control software.
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Defense industry |
| Founded | 2017; 6 years ago |
| Founders |
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| Headquarters | Costa Mesa, California, U.S. |
| Key people |
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| Number of employees | 1500 (2023) |
| Website | anduril.com |
Background
The Pentagon has been shifting from counter-terrorism efforts to geopolitical issues, particularly concerning rivals like Russia, China, and Iran; China, in particular, has spent a considerable amount of resources developing artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G capabilities.
Joshua Brustein of Bloomberg Businessweek credits Palantir Technologies for helping usher in more open government relations with startups for military contracts; Palantir sued the U.S. Army in 2016 "for refusing to consider it for a large intelligence contract," and, after winning the case, won the contract at a value of up to $800 million.Additionally, Anduril's founders note SpaceX as the only other "defense unicorn" (a startup valued over $1 billion dollars) for also being started by wealthy investors, rather than competitive growth as in many industries. Similarly to Palantir, SpaceX famously also sued the U.S. Air Force for "the right to compete" against United Launch Alliance (ULA) for launch contracts which were awarded as sole-source. At the same time, Secretary of DefenseAshton Carter took measures in 2015 to increase government-business relations with "nontraditional" defense companies.
History
Anduril Industries is named for Andúril, the sword of Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings.
Pre-founding (investor meetups)
In June 2014, Palmer Luckey attended a retreat on Sonora Island, British Columbia, hosted by Founders Fund, an early Oculus investor. Luckey met Trae Stephens, a 30-year-old employee at the Fund. Stephens joined the Fund in 2014, leaving his previous employer Palantir Technologies, convinced by the Fund's leader, Peter Thiel. "Stephens found it ridiculous that almost no venture-backed companies worked closely with the government; with its billions of dollars to spend", aside from Palantir and SpaceX. The Fund was also an early SpaceX investor; "Stephens' goal was to fund a company to join that duo", but found it difficult to accomplish in Silicon Valley.
2014 meetup: Luckey and Stephens met and expressed a shared interest in shaping the incentives of defense contracting but with the structure of tech startups. DOD and DHS opened Silicon Valley offices in 2015; "In 2017, as part of an initiative that had begun the previous year, the Defense Department also unveiled the Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team, known as Project Maven, to harness the latest AI research into battlefield technology, starting with a project to improve image recognition for drones operating in the Middle East." The Intercept says this environment "provided a unique entry point for Anduril"; Luckey credits people like Raj Shah, a former Defense Innovation Unit director, for enabling commercial/military relations like this.
The idea for a software startup focused on "high-tech" military applications was raised by Anduril chairman Trae Stephens and some of his colleagues at Palantir, a data analytics company founded by Peter Thiel in 2004. Following the 2016 presidential election, Stephens was appointed to the Defense transition team and later joined the Defense Innovation Board, a "central part" of Carter's effort. Stephens, who was also looking for a defense startup Founders Fund could invest in, began to recruit employees for Anduril alongside Palmer Luckey, who was looking to make use of the money he obtained from selling Oculus VR to Facebook in 2014 for $2B. Luckey had been involved in a political controversy shortly before the 2016 election and left Facebook in March 2017, alleging he had been fired for his pro-Trump beliefs, which Facebook denies. Stephens and Luckey recruited employees from Palantir and Oculus, and planned to employ Luckey's developmental approach with the Oculus headset to combine low-cost hardware components with sophisticated software. Luckey thought this would be easy because, he believes, "the defense industry has been stagnant for decades."
The company was founded by Palmer Luckey, the creator of the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift, and several former employees at Palantir Technologies, a data analytics company which contracts with intelligence agencies, including CEO Brian Schimpf (Palantir was also backed by Founders Fund). It is backed by the technology investor Peter Thiel. Luckey started Anduril after being fired from Facebook in 2017, amid controversy he believes was related to political beliefs. Anduril was incorporated in June 2017 and seeded by Founders Fund.
At least four figures initially founded Anduril: Trae Stephens, Palmer Luckey, Matt Grimm, and Joe Chen. Brian Singerman led a seed funding round. Luckey, Stephens, and Grimm pitched their company to the directors of Palantir; one of them, Brian Schimpf, decided to join, and became the fifth co-founder (and CEO)."
Anduril executives contacted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) California office in June 2017, expressing interest in providing low-cost wide-ranging border security; DHS introduced them to border officials. San Diego CBP office eventually selected Anduril to pilot test a new border system.
In a June 2018 article, Steven Levy of Wiredreported that Lattice surveillance towers were being informally tested on a Texas rancher's private land. Lattice was operated remotely by an Anduril technician
June 2019: news outlet Naval Technology reported that U.K. Royal Navy partnering with Anduril to use Lattice as part of a modernization initiative; The Verge hypothesized that lattice would be used for more than surveillance, and more as a data platform to unify data access to ground troops.
According to an October 2019 report by NBC, the advocacy group Mijente discovered a $13.5M Marine Corps contract "to install Anduril systems at military bases in Japan and the United States, including one that abuts the U.S.-Mexico border." Anduril also has a contract with the U.K. Royal Marines.
In May 2020, Anduril announced an expansion office in Seattle, Washington.
In July 2020, CBP paid $25M to Anduril for some surveillance towers; in September 2020, Anduril received $36M from CBP for its surveillance towers. CBP planned to install 200 Anduril towers total by 2022. CBP had worked some pilot programs with Anduril in Texas and San Diego beginning in 2018; in 2019, more towers were installed in CBP's San Diego sector, CBP ordered more for Texas, and started a new pilot program at Montana and Vermont border sites for a cold-weather tower variant.
In July 2020, CBP and Anduril entered a five-year contract to deploy sentry towers.
According to reporting by The Intercept, Google would be using their Google Cloud technology to help AI implementations by CBP's Innovation Team; it would be "used in conjunction with" technology employed by Anduril.
In February 2021, The Times reported that the Royal Marines had been testing the Ghost drone for frontline use to provide video of targets.
In July 2021, the BBC reported that the Royal Navy had used Ghost drones in an autonomous drone test to provide live feeds of targets.
In April 2021, Anduril acquired Area-I, a company producing drones capable of being launched from larger aircraft. Area-I had previously contracted for U.S. government agencies like the Army, Air Force, Navy, and NASA. Area-I was an Atlanta-based technology startup which developed surveillance drones for government clients; it was founded by aerospace researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and was funded largely through government contracts including SBIR. The acquisition deal was expected to result in Area-I initially operating as an independent subsidiary.
In June 2023, Anduril agreed to acquire a rocket engine company Adranos, giving it access to technology for developing solid rocket motors for missiles and space launch. The company acquired North Carolina-based autonomous aircraft developer Blue Force Technologies in September 2023.
Products
Altius
link=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Area-I_Altius-600.jpg|alt=|thumb|Anduril/Area-I ALTIUS-600 Tube-Launched Unmanned Aerial System in flight Altius (Agile Launched, Tactically-Integrated Unmanned System) is a series of fixed-wing, tube-launched unmanned aerial vehicles developed by Area-I, an Atlanta-based subsidiary of Anduril acquired in April 2021. The Altius 600 is designed to accept a modular payload on the nose, and can be launched from numerous different launchers and platforms, including the C-130 aircraft, the UH-60 Blackhawks various ground vehicles, as well as larger mothership UAVs, including the MQ-1C Grey Eagle and Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie stealth UCAV.
The Altius is a component of the U.S. Army's Air-Launched Effects (ALE), and swarms of them can operate together in a mesh network. The Altius is designed to be low-cost and expendable, but can be recovered mid-flight with Flying Air Recovery System (FLARES).
Anvil
Anvil, also known as Interceptor, is an unmanned combat aerial vehicle quadrotor designed principally to attack other unmanned aerial vehicles. When launched, Anvil locates target drones using computer vision, and can be commanded to kinetically ram targets by its operator. The drone can reportedly reach speeds of up to 200 mph (320 km/h); Anduril is also developing versions to attack larger targets like helicopters or cruise missiles. Anvil can be integrated into Anduril's Lattice system.
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the interceptor was conceptualized over a weekend as a drone that could identify and ram hostile objects.After sending a video to the Pentagon of a working prototype, the U.S. military requested a small order for testing. Anduril publicly announced the drone on October 3, 2019.
As of 2019, Anduril has produced the Anvil for the United States and United Kingdom militaries; Bloomberg Businessweek reported in October 2019 that the company had been contracted to deploy the drone to overseas combat zones. Anduril also plans to market the drone to commercial oil and gas companies for policing "large, wide-open spaces."
Dive-LD
Dive-LD is an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) designed by Boston-based Dive Technologies, which was acquired by Anduril in February 2022.It is intended for use in littoral and deep-water survey, inspection, and ISR. In May 2022, Anduril announced that Royal Australian Navy signed a $100M contract to develop and build three Extra Large Autonomous Undersea Vehicles (XL-AUVs).
Dust
Dust is a small 4-pound (1.8 kg) ground-based sensor designed to detect people and objects in areas with limited line of sight, such as small corridors that nearby Sentry Towers cannot observe. The Dust is powered by an onboard battery providing two months of lifetime, or an external solar panel.
Fury
Originally developed and manufactured by Blue Force Technologies, which Anduril acquired in 2023, Fury is a long-range drone with 17-foot wingspan capable of sub-sonic speeds suited for surveillance and combat operations.
Ghost
The Ghost is an unmanned aerial vehicle. The drone is named "Ghost" because of its reportedly quiet acoustic signature and difficulty in being detected. The latest iteration is Ghost 4; Ghosts 1, 2, and 3 have been used in military operations, but information about them has not been publicly released.
The Ghost 4 was announced by Anduril on September 10, 2020. Constructed using metal alloys and carbon fiber composites, it utilizes a traditional single-rotor helicopter design, which offers reduced noise, increased efficiency and higher payload compared to a multirotor design.The drone measures 8 feet 11.3 inches (2.725 m) long when fully assembled, but can be collapsed to 3 feet 6.2 inches (1.072 m) for transport in a backpack. Anduril claims a maximum flight time of 100 minutes, a cruise speed of 52 knots (60 mph; 96 km/h), a 35-pound (16 kg) payload capacity, and a charge time of 35 minutes. The drone can be remotely or autonomously piloted.Machine learning and computer vision algorithms are used to identify and track targets, while the drone can upload data to Anduril's Lattice system. The drone uses Nvidia processing units originally designed for self-driving cars. The drone was designed to use on-board processing chips due to bandwidth limitations for communication links, and to enable radio silence by operating Ghosts who can process imagery on their own without the need for a centralized analysis system that requires communication. An onboard camera provides a live feed for operators on the ground; Luckey claims it can track and image (in high-resolution) objects up to 2,520 feet (770 m) away. The Ghost can perform multiple roles due to its five modular payload bays, such as utilizing laser weapons or detecting and tracking cruise missiles; Anduril claims that payloads can be swapped out within a matter of minutes. Multiple Ghosts can reportedly link up with each other using a conventional rule-based system to form a 'swarm' to relay data amongst themselves to increase effective range to a Lattice station. The Ghost 4 is ruggedized to increase its weatherproofing; its rotor system was 'overhauled' compared to Ghost 3.
Users of previous Ghost iterations include the United States Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection; the United States Department of Defense and the Ministry of Defencehave used the Ghost 3. The Royal Navy has tested the Ghost for use on the frontline.
Lattice
Lattice is a software platform that can use artificial intelligence to classify objects by ingesting and fusing data from disparate sensors, including from Anduril's own platforms and those of third parties. Lattice has been used to control Anduril equipment for national border and military base surveillance.
Anduril demonstrated Lattice in a September 2020 military exercise simulating shooting down Russian cruise missiles in the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico as part of the United States Air Force's Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) program, which aims to reduce delays in command response time after initial data acquisition.During that exercise, Lattice ingested data from Air Force systems and missile detection towers to track potential missiles and alert its users to them; the system displayed a map of the area in a virtual reality headset from Oculus. Users could tag the missile as hostile, and Lattice would show a menu of potential response options.
Military clients access the system using a laptop or phone; Luckey has claimed that future versions of Lattice will also be accessed using augmented reality headsets.
Sentry towers process data to detect people, animals, and vehicles before alerting U.S. patrol agents.
Sentry Tower
The Sentry Tower is a 33-foot (10 m) tall solar-powered portable surveillance tower. The Sentry contains a camera, communications antennae, radar, and thermal imaging equipment. The tower operates autonomously, and feeds data back into Anduril's Lattice system, which can classify moving objects and targets in the imagery. When disassembled, the Sentry can fit into a pickup truck, and can reportedly be re-assembled in under an hour. The CBP says agents can set up individual systems at the border in under 2 hours. The Sentry Tower and associated systems such as Lattice have been referred to as a "virtual border wall" or "smart wall."
The U.S. government has been looking for electronics-based border security since the 1990s; they spent $429M on two unsuccessful development programs from 1997 to 2005. A third program named SBInet and run by DHS started in the mid-2000s with the goal of creating a border wall; Boeing won a contract for the program in September 2006 for an estimated $7.6B. The system was initially rolled out along the Arizona border, but expansion was later halted. Plagued with cost overruns, missed deadlines, and other issues, the program was canceled in 2011 at a price tag of over $1 billion. Alan Bersin says the fault was partly pursuing a 'one-size-fits-all' approach, versus individually implementing systems for localized requirements. Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems had developed camera towers but its equipment was considered more expensive and less mobile than Anduril's; the Sentry tower's smaller footprint also mitigated land-use issues near tribal land, private property, and other areas.
After founding Anduril, the company needed a saleable product (a "quick win"). The company's pitch deck to its initial investors had included 'perimeter security on a pole'; while Stephens was interested in developing the product for forward operating bases, Luckey thought it could be useable as border security for the U.S.-Mexico border.Some Anduril executives contacted a DHS office in California in June 2017, who put them in contact with border-patrol agents; Anduril quickly came up with a prototype. Schimpf and some Anduril employees took the prototype to a test-range.They trained software on open-source machine learning training datasets to identify and distinguish humans from other objects in the imagery.
But Luckey had an idea: Sync a laser beam to a virtual shutter, similar to flash photography. “We shoot a flash beam way, way, way out to where you are,” Luckey says. “It lights up you and the area around you, and then we’re able to pick that up with our electro-optical sensor.” Anduril discovered it could cheaply repurpose the laser, which it bought in bulk, originally meant for a 600-watt cosmetic hair-removal device.
To image distant targets, Luckey proposed the use of an off-the-shelf infrared laser repurposed from a hair removal device as an illumination source in a manner akin to a photographic flash, allowing the Sentry Tower to capture high resolution images of distant targets. This was considered a cheaper alternative to using a thermal camera, which was expected to also fare poorly in the environoment.
Stephens called U.S. representative Will Hurd (R-TX); who helped arrange an informal test of three towers in early 2018 on a Texas rancher's land near the border. The towers led to 55 arrests and 982 lbs of marijuana seized within 10 weeks of installation; an official test outside San Diego led to 10 interceptions within 12 days of installation.
Anduril has received a number of contracts from U.S. agencies to install Sentry towers:
- CBP: started in early 2018 with 4 towers for a pilot in San Diego County,; they had 60 in operation in June 2020, with plans to expand to 200 towers by FY 2022
- 2019: A pilot program in Montana/Vermont for "cold-weather tower variant" and other border surveillance equipment.
- In July 2020, CBP paid $25M to Anduril for some surveillance towers; in September 2020, Anduril received $36M from CBP for its surveillance towers.
- July 15, 2019: $13.5M contract with US Marine Corps for Lattice/towers @ 4 bases: "Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler in Okinanawa, Japan; the Marine Corps Base Hawaii on the island of Oahu; the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona; and the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan"
- July 2020: DHS contract to expand its virtual border wall program, including Anduril towers; worth up to $250m overall.
Sentry (firefighting vehicle)
The Sentry is a proposed autonomous firefighting vehicle which would repurpose an armored personnel carrier to carry water instead. The vehicle was developed in a warehouse in Oakland, California by special effects expert and former MythBusters co-host Jamie Hyneman, who was employed as a subcontractor of Anduril.
Military programs
Advanced Battle Management System / Joint All-Domain Command & Control
Luckey announced on September 24, 2020 that Anduril had been awarded a U.S. Air Force contract to help develop the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) alongside more than 50 companies with a potential ceiling of $950M in funding. ABMS is a digital architecture system (battlefield management system) designed to connect data across a variety of sources and weapons, including "jets, drones, ships and soldiers" The task is difficult due to the lack of data interoperability designed into the various sources; for example, the F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters were designed with incompatible tactical datalinks. ABMS is part of Pentagon's Joint All-Domain Command & Control (JADC2) which aims to completely network military assets into a single data-sharing infrastructure to unify data usage across a large number of data sources.
Project Maven
In March 2019, The Intercept reported that Anduril had won a contract with the Pentagon under Project Maven, an initiative that started in 2018 widely intended to utilize AI for military purposes.
Corporate affairs
Development ethos
Founder Palmer Luckey aims to replicate a high-tech startup in the traditionally slower-pace defense industry. Additionally, Anduril has a stated goal of helping to modernize the militaries of US and its allies in the face of "strategic adversaries" including Russia and China.
According to Wired, Anduril uses Silicon Valley-style development schemes, pre-emptively developing products for potential military markets before the Pentagon has expressed a request to purchase them. The company attempts to utilize commercial technologies such as AI and VR for faster iteration.
Military relations
Some employees of prominent technology companies have publicly opposed their employers' contracts with military clients, including Google and Microsoft. There has been a controversy around AI ethics by researchers, with many seeking autonomous weapons bans. To counter this, the Pentagon has introduced AI ethics guidelines.Tech companies have had employees protest against possible deals with the government.
According to Anduril's chairiman, Trae Stephens, the company is upfront about its military connections and weapons development, unlike other technology companies which seek to downplay their military involvement. The company has "unapologetically" expressed its mission, where its engineers are "openly interested" in supporting the U.S. military.
Investor Peter Thiel believes that tech companies should work with the U.S. Government, and less with its rivals, believing there to be an arms race that the U.S. was losing. Luckey has said he trusts the U.S. government and military to obey their ethical guidelines."
Funding
In a September 2019 funding round, Anduril secured US$120M in funding from various venture capitalfirms, including Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz; according to investors, the company was valued at over US$1 billion at the time, a four-fold increase from its 2018 valuation.NBC reported that 8VC and Lux Capital are also investors. As of October 2019, Anduril makes 1x CBP, 2x military revenue.
On July 1, 2020, The Washington Post reported that Anduril received $200M in funding from venture capital firms including Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund for U.S. military projects. A company representative said the company's valuation increased to $2 billion. The Post also reported that Anduril has received around $28M for unclassified contracts, a small amount in the defense industry. In July 2020, Anduril's annual revenue was estimated at $100M.
On June 17, 2021, Anduril announced they had obtained $450M in Series D funding from Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Valor Equity Partners, and D1 Capital Partners; according to the company, this increased their valuation to $4.6bn, double their valuation in July 2020. The funding round was led by investor and entrepreneur Elad Gil.
Political affiliations
Anduril helped provide data/analysis for Rep. Will Hurd to introduce the "Secure Miles with All Resources and Technology Act" bill in 2017 house session, which would fund the development of surveillance equipment to monitor the US-Mexico border.
Locations
Anduril is currently headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, with satellite offices in Boston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., London, and Sydney. The company chose to base themselves initially in Irvinedue to its proximity to military bases and to distance themselves from Silicon Valley, which has been more cautious about working for the military. According to co-founder and COO Matt Grimm, Anduril's work requires in-person interaction due to the necessities of using industrial equipment to build their products, security requirements for classified contracts, and in-person demonstrations for potential clients; this is contrasted against many companies which have begun transitioning to remote-office work.
In July 2018, Anduril leased a 155,000 sq ft (14,400 m2) building next to John Wayne Airport, near Irvine; the Los Angeles Business Journalreported that the lease was the largest in Orange County that year as of July. Anduril leased a 640,000 sq ft (59,000 m2) campus in Costa Mesa, California, in February 2021. Called "The Press" by the company, the new corporate campus was originally home to the Orange County bureau and printing press of the Los Angeles Times starting in 1968; the owner of the Times sold the site in 2017. Due to its original newspaper use, the Press contains a rail line and a gas station; the rail line will be converted to a company park and the gas station into a coffee shop. The existing complex is 450,000 sq ft (42,000 m2); an additional 190,000 sq ft (18,000 m2) expansion west of the complex will serve as Anduril's research and development hub and a parking garage. Two floors will be added inside part of the existing complex; the entire redesign will cost US$200M.As of February 2021, 144,000 sq ft (13,400 m2) of the complex is available for use, while the new expansion will be completed by Q3 2022. Anduril plans to fully move into its Costa Mesa location in 2022. The lease is the largest in Costa Mesa's history and the largest in Orange County's last 15 years (by size).
The relocation is expected to boost Costa Mesa's economy, whose government has struggled with budget shortfalls due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company also operates a testing range near Camp Pendleton.
Employment
In June 2019, Anduril had around 90 employees.The company had around 130 employees in October 2019; around 400 employees were at its headquarters (plus satellite offices) by February 2021. In February 2021, The Times reported that Anduril had been recruiting former U.K. military personnel.
Criticism and controversies
Anduril has been called "Tech's Most Controversial Startup." Autonomous weapons have been considered controversial in Silicon Valley, but Anduril aggressively courts business from the government and military. Anduril provides autonomous sentry towers used by US Customs and Border Patrol to surveil the southern US border, and the use of its products by the CBP has been criticized by immigration activists. However, the towers have also been billed as part of a "Smart Wall", a more sustainable and economical alternative to a fixed border wall.
Notes
- Anduril's drone has been referred to as the Anvil or the Interceptor. Anduril refers to the drone as the Anvil on their website.
- Anduril calls the Ghost a "small unmanned aircraft system" (sUAS).
- Luckey claims that the Ghost "could track an object and capture detailed images from seven football fields away." One football field is 360 feet (110 m) long, so seven football fields are 2,520 feet (770 m) long in total.
- Tribune Real Estate Holdings (a subsidiary of Tribune Media, the former owner of the Los Angeles Times) and Kearney Real Estate sold the site to the firms SteelWave and Invesco in 2017 for US$65M.
- In a February 2021 article in the Los Angeles Times, "Grimm said that the company plans to move from its current office in Irvine in 18 to 22 months", which is between August and December 2022.