US Army awards Anduril contract worth as much as $20 billion

The US Army has awarded Anduril Industries a contract with a total value of as much as $20 billion to buy the defence startup’s software, hardware and services that the Defense Department said would speed delivery of technology to soldiers.”The modern battlefield is increasingly defined by software. To maintain our advantage, we must be able to acquire and deploy software capabilities with speed and efficiency,” Gabe Chiulli, chief technology officer for the department’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, said in a statement on Friday evening.

The agreement establishes a single procurement vehicle that includes a five-year base period along with another five-year optional ordering period. The contracting framework would eliminate charges to the Pentagon from subcontractors, would accelerate delivery timelines and generate other savings, the Army said in the statement.
Enterprise contracts “are a key part of our modernisation strategy,” Chiulli said.The 10-year deal underscores the Pentagon’s growing reliance on venture-backed technology firms to modernise the military with software-driven systems.

Anduril, founded in 2017 by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, develops autonomous defence technologies including drones, counter-drone interceptors, sensor networks and its Lattice command-and-control platform, which uses artificial intelligence to fuse data from sensors and battlefield systems into a common operating picture for commanders.

The company, based in Costa Mesa, California, presents itself as a fast-moving alternative to traditional defence contractors and uses a Silicon Valley-style approach to develop its systems and then sell to the military.

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