Anduril Industries has taken another step forward in its quest to become the next great American prime minister, this time by beating major defense contractors in the development and testing of small unmanned fighter aircraft prototypes.
The venture capital darling beat out Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman for the deal as part of the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. General Atomics was the other winner from the group of five.
Anduril and General Atomics will design, manufacture and test “production representative test articles” as part of the contract work, an Air Force statement said. Ultimately, the Air Force will make a multibillion-dollar final production decision in fiscal year 2026 and have fully operational aircraft from suppliers before the end of the decade. It’s unclear whether the Air Force will select more than one company to supply production aircraft.
The deal could prove very lucrative for Anduril: Ultimately, the CCA program aims to deliver at least 1,000 fighter jets that will fly alongside manned platforms such as the F-35 and deliver their own weapons. The CCA program is part of an Air Force initiative called Next Generation Air Dominance; The goal is to modernize the entire fleet of flight systems, including manned aircraft (Boeing and Lockheed are still in the running for manned systems contracts).
At the heart of Anduril’s win is Fury, an autonomous aerial vehicle the company acquired when it bought North Carolina-based Blue Force Technologies last year. Anduril went from acquiring the technology to winning a major defense award in less than a year.
The seven-year-old startup was valued at $8.5 billion by investors including Founders Fund in 2022 when it announced its $1.48 billion Series E. Anduril’s 31-year-old founder, Palmer Luckey, was vocal about reversing the zero-sum paradigm that has dominated defense spending – that is, defense secretaries win and the taxpayer loses – by building up cheaper assets at a much faster, yet still fabulous, pace Generates income for its backers.
“Anduril’s work on this program is just beginning,” Anduril SVP Jason Levin said in a statement. “The future success of the United States and its allies requires that CCAs be deployed at a speed, cost and scale to meet the increasing threat. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the U.S. Air Force to bring this important capability to our Airmen as quickly as possible.”