Palmer Luckey says the coolest thing about Anduril...

Protection tech firm Anduril on Thursday announced its plans to increase its Southern California presence with a significant campus in Lengthy Seaside, the coastal city the place founder Palmer Luckey grew up.

The expanded campus will finally assist about 5,500 jobs. Luckey advised TechCrunch that these might be new jobs, not transfers from different operations.

Anduril’s headquarters is close by, in Costa Mesa, California, and it additionally has a large manufacturing facility in Ohio. The Lengthy Seaside campus will span 1.18 million sq. ft throughout six buildings, combining workplace house and industrial areas devoted to R&D. It’s anticipated to be prepared by mid-2027, the corporate stated.

Lengthy Seaside is “a significant aerospace hub proper in our yard,” Luckey advised TechCrunch about why the corporate selected that location.

The plan is to rent comparable sorts of staff to these working at headquarters: manufacturing staff, technicians, meeting staff, and engineers throughout disciplines (electrical, mechanical, aerodynamics), in addition to construct and take a look at roles, and “lots of people on the logistics aspect, as a result of the issues that we’re going to be making there, we’re going to be sending all around the world,” he stated.

Whereas bringing 1000’s of jobs to his childhood city made headlines right this moment, Luckey stated essentially the most thrilling half for him was the fighter jets.

“It seems like we’re going to have the ability to manufacture autonomous fighter jets that can take off proper from the manufacturing facility and fly to wherever the shopper wants them,” he stated. “We’d have jets leaving the manufacturing facility, flying instantly into fight. And I feel that that’s extraordinarily cool.”

Anduril makes autonomous navy drones and plane for land, air, and sea. In 2025, it unveiled a fighter jet known as Fury, designed to fly autonomously, which means it operates utilizing AI somewhat than being piloted remotely by a human operator. The AI executes flight plans set by people. The Fury accomplished its first test flight in California on October 31.