Well, it seems the whole “factory of the future” thing is really happening.
This morning, Anduril released a year-one update on its Arsenal-1 production facility in Ohio—the $1B, 5M+ square foot mega factory the company announced it was building last January. According to the release, the walls are up on the first two buildings, the first 50 employees have been hired, and the whole thing’s expected to be online by 2035.
Oh, and the company officially confirmed what Arsenal-1 will be churning out: YFQ-44A, the “missionized” variant of the company’s Fury fighter drone for the Air Force’s CCA program.
Say it with us: Everyone! Loves! A tiny! Little! Plane!
Build up: In case you’re not on the defense tech hype train, everyone and their mother wants to reimagine how we build the things that go zoom and boom.
Last January, Anduril threw its hat into the whole “rebuilding the arsenal” ring with plans for Arsenal-1. The project was ambitious (to quote Anduril’s statement today, “At the time, people understandably asked whether we were serious”):
- The mega-production site would employ 4,000 people, and Anduril would invest $1B of its own capital to build it.
- Buckeye state officials estimated at the time that the factory would add $1B to Ohio’s GDP.
- The company said it would use totally software-driven and commercial-first techniques to bring defense production into the 21st century.
- At the time, Anduril CSO Christian Brose said that tech would start rolling off the line in mid-2026.
According to the update, things are chugging along nicely.
- The first factory building (Building 1) is “well underway” and will encompass 775,000 square feet of production space and 120,000 additional square feet of office and support space. Anduril says it will start producing YFQ-44A in Building 1 by Q2.
- Walls are going up for Building 2 (924,000+ sq ft), and internal construction will start “soon.”
- The company has finalized its site plan for the whole shebang, including “additional manufacturing and warehouse buildings, a centralized hub, a substation, facilities operations buildings, roadwork, and a campus amenities building.” Anduril says the whole thing will be done by 2035.
- Each of these buildings will come online in a “staggered cadence…allowing [the company] to scale intentionally while staying aligned with production demands.”
Fast and fury-ous: We’ve harped on about the CCA program a bunch, so we’ll keep it brief.
- The Air Force (and also the Army and Navy) wants small-ish, fighter-like drone planes that can fly alongside traditional manned fighters. YFQ-44A is Anduril’s version, based on the Fury drone.
- These fighter drones will cost around $25-30M (compared to an F-35’s $80-135M per unit).
- Anduril and General Atomics won the competition to build production-ready prototypes for the program in April 2024.
- GA’s YFQ-42A model took flight for the first time in August 2025; Anduril’s YFQ-44A got off the ground in November.
And as for that demand: The Air Force wants to churn out 100 of the aircraft as quickly as possible, and Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has said he thinks the service will need 1,000-2,000 CCAs by the mid-2030s.
Sounds like Arsenal-1 could be busy if all goes according to plan.