McLean Advised Blue Force Technologies on Acquisition by Anduril Industries
McLean, Va. – September 2023 – Defense technology company Anduril Industries today announced its acquisition of Blue Force Technologies, a developer of autonomous aircraft with an integrated aerostructures division that serves a wide range of defense and commercial customers. This transaction will expand Anduril’s existing autonomous fleet to now include large high performance, group 5 aircraft and significantly increases Anduril’s reach and impact within the Department of Defense. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Blue Force Technologies designs and manufactures high-end composite aircraft and their components at its factories in North Carolina. Blue Force Technologies has been developing Fury, a group 5 autonomous air vehicle with fighter-like performance since 2019. Fury leverages proprietary rapid prototyping, digital engineering and an open architecture that is designed to deliver next-generation flight performance with the flexibility to integrate heterogenous sensors and payloads to support air dominance missions. Recently, the company successfully completed a flight test of the flight software on board a VISTA, Variable Stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft, and a ground test for Fury’s novel carbon fiber composite propulsion flowpath system.
“This, for us, is about building a different kind of industrial base that can support real large scale autonomous system production and fielding,” said Chris Brose, Anduril Industries' chief strategy officer.
Anduril is making significant investments to continue the development of the Fury autonomous air vehicle, expand manufacturing operations in North Carolina and accelerate development of technologies critical to future capabilities such as autonomous collaborative platforms. As a nontraditional company that uses its own capital for research and development, Anduril moves fast to engineer, prototype, develop and produce new capabilities for the Department of Defense.
These new capabilities are critical to maintaining deterrence in an era of strategic competition. To project force, deter aggression, and regain affordable mass, the DoD will need to rely on large quantities of smaller, lower-cost, more autonomous systems. The U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps have all signaled their intention to modernize and adopt advanced autonomous capabilities. This ecosystem of autonomous systems must be powered by software that enables a single operator to control multiple assets to accomplish a wide range of missions.
This acquisition follows Anduril’s successful launch of Lattice for Mission Autonomy earlier this year, the artificial intelligence-enabled software platform that enables teams of autonomous systems to dynamically collaborate to achieve complex missions, under human supervision. By investing in both hardware and software capabilities, Anduril will further accelerate the development of autonomous operations like manned-unmanned teaming and other critical advanced autonomous solutions for warfighters around the world.
Anduril is a proven leader in developing and fielding integrated autonomous solutions across a wide variety of sensors, effectors and assets across domains. Anduril has experience automating the operations of hundreds of robotic systems deployed in tactical environments around the world. Its objective is to support Department of Defense and allied militaries services in fielding autonomous and artificially intelligent systems as fast as possible.
About Anduril Industries
Anduril Industries, Inc. designs, manufactures, and deploys hardware and software products for defense industries. It offers Lattice Platform, an artificial intelligence platform that uses computer vision, machine learning, and mesh networking to fuse real-time data into a single and autonomous operating picture; Sentry Tower to fuse data from the electromagnetic spectrum; and Ghost 4 sUAS, an unmanned autonomous and man-portable VTOL sUAS that performs missions with little to no human intervention. It also provides Anvil sUAS, a precision kinetic intercept that navigates autonomously to intercept potential drone threats and provides visual feedback for positive identification by a human operator. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is based in Costa Mesa, California with additional offices in Washington, District of Columbia; Atlanta, Georgia; Boston, Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington; and London, United Kingdom. More info: anduril.com
About Blue Force Technologies
Blue Force Technologies (BFT) is an AS9100D and Nadcap-accredited aerospace and defense design and manufacturing company in Raleigh North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. We assist customers in all aspects of rapid-development efforts relating to aerospace systems, typically involving advanced composites. BFT is Boeing-qualified to BAC 5317, BAC 5331, and numerous other specifications. We have received back-to-back Boeing Gold (ie highest tier) awards for 2016 and 2017. Learn more: click here
About The McLean Group
For over 30 years, The McLean Group has been providing investment banking and financial services offerings focused on the Defense, Government & Intelligence (DGI), Security, Critical Infrastructure, Maritime, Facility Services, Unmanned Systems, and Public Safety markets. Our 60+ professionals bring deep industry experience and relentless execution to every client engagement. We provide solutions that blend financial creativity with operational expertise. Whether we are providing transaction advisory, valuation opinions, or growth capital, our services are unmatched in these core markets. Learn more at www.McLeanLLC.com.
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