The U.S. Army awarded defense tech startup Anduril Industries a contract worth up to $20 billion on March 14, consolidating more than 120 separate procurement actions into a single 10-year enterprise agreement built around the company’s AI-powered Lattice platform. The deal, running through March 12, 2036, is the largest federal contract ever awarded to a venture-backed defense technology startup.
The contract covers Anduril’s full commercial technology stack: its open-architecture Lattice command-and-control suite, integrated hardware, data infrastructure, and technical support services. Rather than managing dozens of individual contracts, the Army will now procure all Anduril solutions through a unified agreement, which officials say will reduce administrative overhead and accelerate delivery of capabilities to soldiers in the field.
What Lattice Does and Why the Army Wants It
Lattice is Anduril’s flagship AI platform. It fuses real-time data from disparate sensors, autonomous platforms, and command-and-control tools into a single operational picture, using computer vision, machine learning, and mesh networking. The Army’s primary focus for this contract is counter-unmanned aerial systems (counter-UAS) — tracking and intercepting adversary drones before they can cause damage.
Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization, cited the system’s performance in live testing. “Based on our testing and evaluation, it became clear that a common command and control system is needed to effectively counter adversary drones,” Ross said. During a seven-day trial at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, Lattice integrated a previously undisclosed sensor and effector within hours and executed live-fire intercepts that achieved four out of four kills.
Army Col. Tony Lindh, deputy director of acquisitions for the same organization, said the agreement enables “common air domain awareness” with Lattice serving as the command-and-control backbone across the Army’s network of sensors and effectors.
Anduril’s Rise From Startup to Defense Contractor
Anduril was founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey, who had previously built and sold VR startup Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion. He co-founded Anduril alongside Trae Stephens, Matt Grim, Joe Chen, and Brian Schimpf, with the explicit goal of building defense technology the way Silicon Valley builds software companies: fast, iterative, and software-first.
The company has grown rapidly since its founding. Anduril raised $1.5 billion in a prior round to scale its autonomous weapons manufacturing platform, and it generated approximately $2 billion in revenue last year. The company is currently raising a $4 billion funding round at a reported $60 billion valuation, led by Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital. Before this Army contract, Anduril had also been selected as the lead for the Army’s Integrated Battle Command System Maneuver counter-drone program in November 2025.
The $20 billion enterprise contract now positions Anduril as a peer competitor to traditional defense primes like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon in the Army’s most urgent modernization category. The deal’s structure, consolidating 120-plus separate procurement actions, signals that the Pentagon is moving toward longer-term software platform relationships rather than one-off hardware purchases.
What This Means for Defense Tech Startups
The Anduril contract arrives as drone warfare has reshaped the modern battlefield. Lessons from Ukraine, where cheap unmanned aerial systems have dramatically altered the cost calculus of conflict, have accelerated the Pentagon’s investment in counter-UAS systems. The Army is now standardizing on a single AI platform to create interoperability across all its counter-drone assets.
For the broader defense tech startup sector, the deal represents a new template. A company founded nine years ago, backed by venture capital, competing directly against established contractors for a 10-year, $20 billion program is a marked departure from how defense procurement has historically worked. Anduril’s success has drawn a wave of defense tech startups that have emerged in recent years, and venture capital flowing into AI-driven defense technology has accelerated across the startup ecosystem.
The contract was issued by the U.S. Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. Anduril confirmed the award in a statement, saying the agreement would allow the company to consolidate and streamline its existing Army programs while expanding capabilities for the Army and its government partners. Funding for individual task orders will be determined with each order throughout the 10-year period.
