Defense technology company Anduril Industries said it will build a new manufacturing facility in Rhode Island that could produce as many as 200 of its Dive-LD autonomous underwater vehicles annually.
The company will use its own money, plus some support from the state of Rhode Island, to establish the Quonset Point plant.
The factory will open in late 2025 and be operational in early 2026, reaching full capacity by the end of that year: 50 hulls per year, with the possibility of scaling up to 200 per year as customer demand demands.
Until the facility opens, the company will continue to build Dive-LD hulls at its marine engineering center in Quincy, Massachusetts. Anduril received a contract in February to supply the Department of Defense with Dive-LD vehicles through the Defense Innovation Unit’s Commercial Solutions Opening process. The U.S. Navy subsequently awarded the company an $18.6 million award using that contract vehicle.
Anduril Chief Strategy Officer Chris Brose told reporters on June 11 that the company had proven the maturity and usability of its Dive-LD vehicle during a swim-off event last year that led to the DIU contract. But a remaining and recurring question from the government was: “Can Anduril increase production to achieve really high production figures?”
He said the Quonset Point plant “will demonstrate to the U.S. government that we are willing and able to fulfill major contracts, if those contracts come through.”
Keeping the 100,000 to 150,000 square foot manufacturing facility afloat will create more than 100 jobs over the next five years.
It will also enable Anduril to realize its vision of building a massive fleet of AUVs. A company statement notes that the Dive-LD family of vehicles is “designed from the ground up for production at scale, with a heavy emphasis on off-the-shelf commercial components with robust supply chains, modular design and advanced, scalable manufacturing techniques that enable rapid iterations enable based on customer needs.”
The company can build 12 Dive-LD vehicles today at its Quincy facility, or scale up to 24 vehicles by adding additional shifts if necessary.
“We’re running out of space in terms of our ability at the Quincy facility to meet the demand we’re seeing from the Navy right now, let alone where we think it will be in the future,” Brose said.
“This is the challenge that I think all defense companies have in terms of how much they need to facilitate to meet a demand that is not always crystal clear,” Brose continued. “Our approach is to lean forward. We are going to invest in ourselves; we are going to invest in our ability to produce these types of systems in a completely different way. And we’re going to set up the facilities to meet the demand that we expect will grow,” rather than waiting for the government to award a contract and having to play catch-up to build a bigger factory.
As for the Quonset Point location, Brose said the region is a “phenomenal center of subsea expertise and manufacturing.”
“Nav[al] Undersea Warfare Center, other major contractors involved in major subsea programs, access to the water – you just have a hugely rich environment of subsea expertise, talented workforce, and it’s phenomenal for Anduril to be part of that and respond to that to play. Bros said.
