A sign for Anduril at the AFA 2022 Air, Space and Cyber Conference. (Justin Katz/Breaking Defense)
WASHINGTON — Anduril Industries has acquired solid rocket manufacturer Adranos, in a move that the defense technology startup hopes will mark a bold foray into the hypersonics market.
“Anduril’s entrance to the market as a supplier will bring more resources and competition to an industry facing heavy consolidation, expand the industrial supply base, and provide increased velocity for development and production of solid rocket motors, which are critical to replenishing allied stockpiles of munitions and maintaining credible deterrence,” the company announced Sunday.
As part of the acquisition, Anduril said it will help modernize the Adranos Solid Rocket Complex production facility in Mississippi to “increase output” of standard and ALITEC, Adranos’s proprietary aluminum-lithium alloy fuel, “solid rocket motors to thousands per year at much faster lead times than currently available,” the announcement says.
Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker said the acquisition comes at a critical time.
“The availability of solid rocket motors is of critical importance to U.S. national security,” Wicker said in the release. “These motors are the lifeblood of munitions, hypersonic weapons, and small space launch systems.”
The solid rocket motor industry has become the center of more than a little political and bureaucratic controversy in recent years. Last February defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin walked away from the $4.4 billion acquisition of manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne amid a legal scrape with the Federal Trade Commission, as regulators had been concerned about the lack of competition in the solid rocket motor game. L3Harris is currently working with the FTC to clear hurdles to buy Aerojet. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has called on the FTC to go further, in January advocating that it block the L3Harris deal and even unwind Northrop Grumman’s 2018 purchase of another solid rocket motor maker, Orbital ATK.
Speaking Sunday about the Adranos acquisition, Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf said there is a “clear need for greater competition and expanded supply in solid rocket motors for the United States and our allies.”
“With this acquisition, Anduril will grow the defense industrial base, speed development and production of critical components with an advanced manufacturing approach, and enable next-generation performance of solid rocket motors with ALITEC, which is crucial for national security and overall health of the defense industry,” he said.
Adranos CEO Chris Stoker said that with Anduril, the company will be able to rapidly mature its technology and production capabilities.
The acquisition is something of a departure for Anduril, which has historically focused on technologies like artificial intelligence and counter-unmanned systems. In May, the company unveiled new tech that could allow a single operator to control hundreds of autonomous systems and last January won a nearly $1 billion contract with Special Operations Command.
In 2021, the company acquired both Area-I, a tube-launched unmanned aerial system maker, and Copious Imaging, bolstering the company’s air defense portfolio.
