> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Anduril: Trump-linked US defence firm eyes UK military contracts - URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/anduril-trump-linked-us-defence-firm-eyes-uk-military-contracts/ - Published: 2026-08-21T16:15:16.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-21T16:40:23.000Z - Description: Drone maker Anduril is backed by Peter Thiel, counts Donald Trump Jr. as an investor, and is one of four firms selected for the MoD’s new “wingman” project - Author: Ethan Shone - Tags: military spending, Labour, Lobbying, Defence spending, Donald Trump, Anduril When the UK’s defence secretary visited the Pentagon in March last year, the ministry [announced](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/advanced-attack-drones-for-ukraine-in-new-deal-struck-by-uk-government-and-anduril-uk?ref=opendemocracy.net) a £30 million ‘drones for Ukraine’ deal fulfilled by “Anglo-American defence tech company”, Anduril Industries UK. Yet a government briefing note obtained by openDemocracy noted that the so-called “Anglo-American” Anduril employed only about 40 staff in the UK at the time, and that the company was “reluctant to commit to investment in the UK without MoD contracts.” In effect, Anduril UK was the sales and support office of its U.S. parent, which was founded by a key ally of US President Donald Trump, and counts Trump’s son, Donald Jr. as an investor through the “anti-woke” investment firm 1789 Capital. Any future investment by Anduril, the note prepared in May 2025 for then-investment minister Poppy Gustafsson said, would require not just contracts, but co-investment from the government. That was then. Twelve months later, Anduril UK has been on a hiring spree that includes the former head of the UK Space Command, Major General Paul Tedman CBE. openDemocracy understands that the company now employs over 150 personnel in the UK, of whom at least 50 are former defence personnel with significant knowledge of the MoD's inner workings. The company is one of four defence-tech firms who were handed £2.5m to prototype so-called “Wingman” drones to assist military helicopters in combat operations. The winning prototype will land an initial contract worth around £200m. The rapid expansion of Anduril’s UK footprint reveals how a clutch of US defence-tech firms backed by Trump's family and close supporters are looking to profit from the US President’s insistent pressure on the UK government to increase its defence spending. As Trump’s erratic foreign policy has raised military tensions across the world, these firms — which includes [controversial spy-tech firm Palantir](https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/palantir-ministry-defence-hire-four-officials-2025-record-defence-contract-240-million/) — are poised to benefit. Anduril Industries was launched in California in 2017 with backing from Peter Thiel, the billionaire Trump donor who also founded Palantir, which has recently swept up millions’ worthof UK public contracts including with the NHS, various police forces and the MoD. Luckey, Anduril’s founder, was one of the few tech figures to publicly back Trump ahead of his first presidential term and is a prominent fundraiser for the Republican Party. Alongside Palantir, Anduril has rapidly become one of the US government’s most significant new defence technology contractors, supplying drones, border towers and software. The names of both firms are drawn from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. ## **Anduril (in the) UK** Anduril has made steady inroads into the UK. Apart from the drones for Ukraine, the firm has supplied software and autonomous sentry towers to the UK Border Force, and similar towers are also deployed to protect UK military bases, including RAF Akrotiri, which has played a role in supporting US operations in Gaza. Anduril is also a key supplier to Project ASGARD, the MoD’s initiative to “double the lethality” of the British Army through the use of AI and other tech, primarily by speeding up target identification and decision-making. Anduril provides ASGARD – part of the wider £1bn Digital Targeting Web programme – with command and control software called Lattice, which uses AI to consolidate and sort information from different sources in real-time. The latest 'wingman' contract, involves producing autonomous drones to fight alongside the British Army's Apache Helicopters, or, in as the MoD put it, to [“increase lethality”](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/british-based-firms-lead-the-way-for-apache-helicopter-support-drones?ref=opendemocracy.net); a frequent refrain of US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Anduril was one of four “British-based industry partners” selected for the penultimate stage of the MoD programme this May. Each was handed £2.5m of taxpayer money to develop its proposal. The Defence Investment Plan (DIP) costs the programme at £220m, and states that the successful firm will supply “up to 24 autonomous drones by 2030”. A briefing note prepared for ministers ahead of a meeting last year reveals that Anduril has been receiving support from the government to establish a UK manufacturing facility, which the firm has said it will only do if it is guaranteed government contracts, and gets a ‘co-investment’ to sweeten the deal. openDemocracy understands that the firm is in the final stages of selecting a site for this facility. An MOD spokesperson told openDemocracy: "We are working closely with industry, including Anduril UK, to develop Project NYX. This work is being carried out by teams based in the UK, in partnership with companies from across the UK's defence industrial base. "As this is part of an ongoing procurement process, we cannot comment on commercial terms, co-investment arrangements, or the relationship between industry proposals and the wider process. ## 'MoD insider, frontline Army officer, and scale-up executive' In June this year, the outgoing Starmer government announced a £15bn funding boost for the military with the Defence Investment Plan, of a total £298bn commitment over four years. Andy Burnham’s government has signalled defence will also be one of its priorities. The DIP followed the Strategic Defence Review that was published in June 2025, and set out the blueprint and priorities for increased defence spending. The SDR sought to mimic US defence procurement, with an increased emphasis on venture capital-backed defence tech. It also established an advisory board made up of venture capital and private equity firms, the Defence Investors’ Advisory Group, to “advise the Government on investment priorities”. The £220m earmarked for the MoD’s ‘wingman’ programme' (formally known as Project NYX) – is a small part of a much larger war-chest specifically set aside for autonomous defence tech; more than £5bn over four years. In anticipation of this windfall, Anduril has rapidly scaled up its UK operation in the last 18 months, going from 40 UK staff to around 150, including a raft of recent ex-Army hires with direct experience of the Apache programme, and MoD civil servants with deep knowledge of procurement processes. “With 15+ years across government, defence, and high-growth technology, I sit at the intersection that most operators can’t: MoD insider, frontline Army officer, and scale-up executive,” a recent hire to Anduril’s UK Connected Warfare Department, Tommy Edgar, wrote on LinkedIn. “I've designed incubator-accelerators that put emerging technology into live operations. I've led a £110m classified intelligence exploitation service. I've run £multi-billion portfolios and built the governance architecture that makes fast-moving programmes repeatable.” Another hire, Tom Anstey had worked across the MoD, the Foreign Office, Joint Helicopter Command and the British Army, including a stint leading an Apache helicopter squadron, before joining Anduril earlier this year. Anstey joined Anduril directly from the MoD, where he was a policy coordinator “within the directorate responsible for strategic-level financial planning”, according to his LinkedIn profile. David Arthurton joined Anduril from the MoD this time last year. He led the ministry’s work on strategy and military digitisation, and now works as managing director of Anduril’s European Combat Air division. Before posting to the MoD, Arthurton had a long front-line operational career, finally serving as Combat Air Force commander. Other recent hires bring more direct experience working with Apache helicopters and in MoD procurement. Anduril also recently hired a former MoD and national security adviser who served as a major in the Army Reserves as its chief in-house lobbyist. Khem Rogaly, co-director of the Transition Security Project, a research centre investigating the US and UK military complexes, told openDemocracy that the UK “opened its arms to companies peddling autonomous weapons and supposedly cutting-edge military technologies”. “These companies and their investors have identified that military budgets are an opportunity to profit, taking positions on government councils and hiring Ministry of Defence staff. The revolving door is the tried and tested method of the military industrial complex.” “Anduril should not be mistaken for a ‘UK-based company’," Rogaly said. "It is a Pentagon contractor backed by American venture capital that will provide little to the UK economy in return for public money.” openDemocracy has reached out to Anduril for comment.