Anduril Industries

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 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. 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 Defense Ashton 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.