The US military has announced a contract with Anduril worth up to $20B

The US military said late Friday that it would sign 10 year contract it is the beginning of the security system On the sensor. The deal could be worth $20 billion.

According to to announceThe agreement begins with a five-year “start-up period,” with the option to extend the agreement for another five years, and includes Anduril hardware, software, infrastructure, and services.

The military describes the deal as a single business deal involving “more than 120 different purchases of Anduril products.”

“Today’s war is largely defined by software,” said Gabe Chiulli, chief technology officer at the Defense Department’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, in a statement. “In order to remain competitive, we must be able to access and use software programs quickly and efficiently,”

Anduril was founded by Palmer Luckey, who was previously known for selling VR startup Oculus to Facebook (now Meta). Facebook fired Luckey after controversy erupted after a news report suggested he had donated money to a Trump-aligned political group.

Luckey has repeatedly insisted that the media oppose his political views, but according to a recently in the New York TimesLuckey and Anduril were welcomed by Trump’s second administration, thanks to his vision of renewing the US military with autonomous warplanes, drones, submarines, etc. The company (named, like Palantir, for the magic item in “Lord of the Rings”) brought in $2 billion in revenue last year, the NYT reports.

Different reports indicate that Anduril is negotiating to raise new funds at a cost of $60 billion.

This announcement also comes as the Department of Defense is locked in a dispute with Anthropic, and AI company is suing DoD in its designation as a contract risk following contract failure, which OpenAI experienced consumer returns and at least one departure after signing his own Pentagon contract.