Tech firms developing software for Trump's $185 billion missile defense system amid cost disputes

Expansion into drones, AI command systems and space surveillance highlights shift toward autonomous warfare capabilities

JERUSALEM — Palmer Luckey, the technology entrepreneur behind Anduril Industries, traveled to Israel this week for a series of private meetings that included talks with Benjamin Netanyahu and senior defense officials, according to Israeli tech publications.

WASHINGTON — Defense technology company Anduril said it has been awarded $43.7 million in additional Defense Production Act Title III funding to expand domestic solid rocket motor production capacity, according to a company press release dated Oct. 2, 2025.

A Canadian engineering company partnering on autonomous military aircraft in the United Kingdom is also overseeing nuclear materials operations at a former uranium enrichment site in southern Ohio under a $2.3 billion U.S. Department of Energy contract.

LONDON — Anduril Industries is among seven companies shortlisted by the U.K. Ministry of Defence in a competition to develop drones designed to operate alongside Apache attack helicopters under a program known as Project NYX.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force has confirmed that Shield AI is providing mission-autonomy software for Anduril Industries’ YFQ-44A aircraft as part of the service’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft, a flagship effort to field semi-autonomous drones designed to operate alongside crewed fighter jets.

Since 2018, Anduril Industries—a rapidly growing defense tech firm backed by billionaire Peter Thiel and founded by Palmer Luckey—has landed 16 contracts from the Department of Homeland Security worth over $550 million. The goal? To blanket the U.S.-Mexico border with autonomous surveillance towers, AI-powered drones, and military-grade interceptor systems. What started as a modest border security pilot project has morphed into a full-blown, algorithm-driven enforcement machine.

Anduril Industries, a prominent defense tech firm, publicly announced, earlier this year, its plan to build Arsenal-1, a five-million-square-foot advanced weapons manufacturing facility in Pickaway County, Ohio, near Rickenbacker International Airport. This initiative, originally and secretly codenamed "Project Thor," has been promoted by Governor Mike DeWine as the biggest job-creation and payroll project in the state’s history. They’re promising 4,000 direct jobs by 2035, 4,500 more indirectly, a $1 billion boost to Ohio’s GDP, and $2 billion in annual economic output. Anduril claims Arsenal-1 will "rebuild the arsenal" of U.S. military might by "hyperscaling" production of autonomous systems and weaponry, like advanced drones.

The New Architects of Conflict

Anduril Industries’ latest expansion near the Mississippi Solid Rocket Complex is drawing harsh criticism from community activists and arms control advocates who say the move accelerates a dangerous militarization of domestic industry.

DUBLIN, Ireland — Anduril Industries, the defense startup synonymous with AI-driven warfare, has announced its acquisition of Irish IT firm Klas. The move, framed as an expansion of Anduril’s tactical computing capabilities, signals deeper entrenchment of autonomous defense operations—but critics warn of unchecked corporate control over military decision-making.