It’s a “big, big day” for Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine said in a press conference Wednesday. DeWine and state leaders agreed that a rapidly growing Wright-Patterson and a thriving Ohio defense ecosystem overall helped draw Anduril to the Buckeye State.
“With Wright-Patterson Air Force Base continuing to grow where it is today, it puts the companies like Anduril very close to the customer (the Air Force),” DeWine said. “That, I think, is a vitally important thing.”
DeWine would not say how many state tax incentives or state dollars were offered to Anduril to expand into Ohio. He promised that information would come out within days.
Wright-Patt, home to some 38,000 military and civilian employees, is not just Ohio’s largest single-site employer. The large base also is the heart of Air Force research and materiel missions, designing and crafting future weapons and systems while simultaneously overseeing the maintenance of the service’s existing fleet.
“We were just perfectly situated for this sector,” said Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.
In the press briefing, Anduril Chief Strategy Officer Chris Brose said he was eager to get started, and he hopes to have products rolling off Ohio production lines by the middle of next year.
“We are actively engaged with the United States Air Force,” Brose said.
Some of the first products to be made at the planned facility will be the company’s autonomous “Fury” aircraft, as well as the “Barricuda” low-cost cruise missile (without the explosives) and the “Road Runner” surface-to-air weapon, again minus what Brose called the weapon’s “energetics.”
“Those three (products) will be our priority right away,” he said.
In a Thursday project unveiling at Rickenbacker, Anduril co-founder and CEO Brian Schimpf said the facility, dubbed “Aresenal-1,” will produce “tens of thousands of autonomous systems annually,” and greatly add to the “war-fighting capabilities” of America and its allies.
Schimpf argued the need for serious investment in weapons manufacturing, stating that the U.S. “would run out in the first few weeks of any conflict, and lead times to replenish key weapons munitions average two years.”
“Put simply, we need to manufacture more weapons, faster,” Schimp said.
In addition to the 4,000 direct jobs at Arsenal-1, the project is anticipated to create a total of 4,500 indirect and induced jobs over the next decade and more than $2 billion in annual economic output.
The plant will be located approximately a 90-minute drive east of Dayton, near Rickenbacker International Airport.
“The 5-million-square-foot facility, named Arsenal 1, represents the largest single job creation and new payroll project in Ohio’s history and is projected to add nearly $1 billion to Ohio’s gross domestic product,” said JobsOhio, the state’s private development arm.
The Arsenal-1 project is an ambitious undertaking for Anduril, which was founded in 2017. Its leadership team, which includes Co-founder Trae Stephens, born and raised in Lebanon, Ohio, was described by DeWine as “young, visionary, and aggressive” and “the type of people...we need to have in Ohio.”
Based in Costa Mesa, Calif., Anduril seeks to build U.S. military weapons and platforms by “hyperscaling” manufacturing with advanced software and production technologies, the state said.
Over $1 billion in-state labor income will be generated, and projected tax revenues are estimated to be roughly $800 million, the state said.
“Arsenal-1 represents a significant step forward in how we build the autonomous systems and weapons our nation and allies need, leveraging Ohio’s world-class workforce, robust infrastructure, and scalable, software-driven manufacturing to set a new standard for securing the future of defense,” said Schimpf. “We are ready to break ground and get to work building the capabilities that will strengthen America’s industrial base and national security for years to come.”
In April, the Air Force announced that Anduril had been selected as one of two vendors to move forward on the Collaborative Combat Aircraft or “CCA” program.
While the Air Force in April awarded contracts to Anduril and General Atomics for the air vehicle portion of the project, the identities of five companies working on the CCA’s autonomy software has been classified.
Over the next phase, Anduril will design, manufacture, and test production-representative CCAs, the company said.
“Anduril is going to be a great partner, a great partner for the business community in Ohio,” said J.P. Nauseef, president and CEO of JobsOhio.
“This is an incredibly special place that we’re moving into, and we’re incredibly excited,” Brose said.
Asked which states Ohio beat for the project, Brose said: “I’m pretty sure we looked at every one of them.”
On Thursday, DeWine boasted about a pattern of coastal companies, Anduril being the latest, to expand into Ohio.
“Since 2019, 62 companies from the coast have expanded to come here to Ohio, bringing more than 21,000 jobs and $52 billion in capital investment,” DeWine said.
