Anduril Unveils Arsenal-1 Factory And Bold Ambitions

Since opening its doors seven years ago in Costa Mesa, California, Silicon Valley-backed defense startup Anduril Industries has amassed a panoply of military contracts covering sensors, submersibles, software, drones, rocket motors and more.

Anduril has more than $145 million in contract obligations to the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security, according to USASpending.gov. More deals for undisclosed amounts have come from overseas, including from Australia, Japan and the UK.

• Anduril proposes a plant with factory floor area greater than Boeing’s largest facility
• A diverse array of products is made at its current facilities

With a firm foothold in a risk-averse defense market, Anduril is planning another bold move, having unveiled a $1.5 billion Series F funding round on Aug. 8 to finance a new approach to industrialization. The plan centers on Arsenal-1, a massive manufacturing facility designed to produce tens of thousands of autonomous systems annually.

With a projected floor plan exceeding 5 million ft.², Arsenal-1 is set to overtake in size Boeing’s commercial aircraft factory in Everett, Washington, which is now the second-largest building in the world by square footage, trailing only Tesla’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. Anduril did not provide the height of the new factory, so it is impossible to compare its internal cubic volume with other facilities. The company also has not revealed Arsenal-1’s planned location.

Anduril intends to streamline production by unifying design and manufacturing systems data under its proprietary operating software, Lattice, which Chief Strategy Officer Christian Brose described as the “superpower” behind the company’s future manufacturing capabilities.

“The focus for us is how we produce [our] systems on as common a manufacturing platform as possible,” Brose said during a recent media roundtable. A single software platform and a centralized production facility, he said, are crucial to Anduril achieving “hyperscale” production.

The approach to Arsenal-1 diverges from traditional defense manufacturing, which is often characterized by slow production rates, supply chain choke points and complex, bespoke systems. Instead, Anduril is focusing on “producibility, flexibility, modularity and adaptability,” Brose said.

“We are never going to focus on building exquisite weapon systems,” he continued. “We are going to focus on building supplementary capabilities that we can get quickly, which are autonomous systems and weapons of all classes. We need these systems in the tens of thousands.”

One key to Anduril’s strategy is integrated commercial supply chains, which the company believes will help avoid defense-specific bottlenecks. Nearly 90% of Arsenal-1’s production is to rely on commercially available components and materials.

However, the announcement of Arsenal-1 raises the question of whether Anduril can deliver on its promises. The company has grown considerably in recent years, including a $75 million investment in a solid rocket motor facility in McHenry, Mississippi, and the opening this year of a production facility for autonomous underwater vehicles in Quonset Point, Rhode Island. Arsenal-1 is a huge undertaking that will require substantial resources and commitment.

“We are bringing under one roof the capability to build everything Anduril currently produces across every conceivable variety of autonomous vehicle and weapon and doing that at hyperscale,” Brose said. “This is about moving from large-scale production to hyperscale production.”

The Arsenal-1 plan follows other recent successes demonstrating the company’s growing influence in the defense sector. Last year, it acquired solid rocket motor manufacturer Adranos and began to present itself as a potential leading supplier for the Pentagon.

In April, Anduril was named one of the first contract awardees for the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, an initiative to design, test and develop crewed-uncrewed teaming concepts. In June, the company was announced as the U.S. Navy’s choice to build the solid rocket motor for the second stage of its Standard Missile 6, which is expected to be hypersonic.

Arsenal-1’s unveiling is the latest in a string of announcements that emphasize Anduril’s aim to revolutionize defense manufacturing. By attempting to address what it sees as deficiencies in the defense industrial base—low capacity, in particular—Anduril aims to challenge industry giants like Boeing, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

And the company has greater expansion plans. “Arsenal-1 is not the end of the story,” Brose said. “Our hope is that it will be followed quickly by Arsenal-2, which could be in the U.S. or the territory of a U.S. ally or partner.”

Brose described Anduril’s sprawling ambition as a gamble. “We are . . . elevating virtues that traditionally are not treated as virtues in the defense world,” he acknowledged. “We are betting on a future that is uncertain and is going to change.”