US defense company Anduril is expected to significantly benefit from the expected European arms buildup.
“We will lay a strong focus on internationalization in 2025” said Chris Brose, Anduril’s strategy chief, to the “Spiegel”. Anduril is supporting the planned expansion of the European defense industry and is looking “very much forward to a closer cooperation with European partners and allies”. The company is “open to any kind of partnership, whether it’s joint development or joint production”.
Last year, Anduril received a development contract for the unmanned flight system Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) from the US Air Force. Now, Anduril is reportedly planning to bring the CCA system to Europe and is in talks with Rheinmetall.
Rheinmetall, a German defense company, has a focus on tanks and other land-based weapon systems, but is currently expanding its business. The company is building a new plant in Weeze, North Rhine-Westphalia, for the production of F-35 fuselage parts, which will also be delivered to Germany.
The technology chiefs of Anduril and Rheinmetall met in January to explore the possibility of expanding their cooperation. A partnership on the CCA has not been decided yet. Last summer, Rheinmetall and Anduril agreed to a cooperation on drone defense.
“That was a good start and I’m very optimistic that more will happen” said Brose. Anduril and Rheinmetall declined to comment on the current talks. Anduril was founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey, the inventor of the Virtual Reality headset Oculus Rift and has quickly risen to become one of the top US defense companies. The company specializes in AI-controlled weapon systems and is valued at around $28 billion in its current funding round.