A nationwide search led the defense contractor to a site in Greater Columbus.
Palmer Luckey, the famed 32-year-old California entrepreneur who revolutionized the way the world sees virtual reality through Oculus, is about to change the way America wages war. This time there is nothing virtual about it.
Through an 8-year-old company known as Anduril Industries, Luckey and his co-founders are raising capital that will be plowed into making the world’s most advanced military drones — referred to in military parlance as Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). And they will do that manufacturing in the American heartland.
Anduril is making a $900-million investment to create the planet’s largest drone factory in Pickaway County in Central Ohio. Announced to the public on January 16, the planned factory complex will cover 5 million sq. ft., roughly the size of 87 football fields. The campus will be known as Arsenal-1 and will be the largest jobs-generating deal in Ohio history. More than 4,000 workers are expected to be employed at the 500-acre site in the Columbus region upon buildout in 2035.
Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus VR, is one of the co-founders of Anduril Industries, a California-based aerospace and defense manufacturer.
The Fury is one of Collaborative Combat Aircraft drones made by Anduril Industries.
The numbers are staggering:
- In addition to the 4,000 direct jobs, the project is expected to create another 4,500 indirect and induced jobs over the next 10 years.
- The giant manufacturing complex is projected to generate more than $2 billion in annual economic output.
- Over $1 billion in labor income is forecast to be generated annually.
- Projected tax revenues are estimated to be $822 million over 15 years.
More importantly, the project will fundamentally change the way the country defends itself from attacks, the firm says.
“Arsenal-1 represents a significant step forward in how we build the autonomous systems and weapons our nation and allies need, leveraging Ohio’s world-class workforce, robust infrastructure and scalable, software-driven manufacturing to set a new standard for securing the future of defense,” said Brian Schimpf, CEO of Anduril Industries. “We are ready to break ground and get to work building the capabilities that will strengthen America’s industrial base and national security for years to come.”
The Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved a 30-year Job Creation Tax Credit valued at $452.3 million to support the project. Pickaway County is also expected to request an incentive award of $70 million from the All Ohio Future Fund.
Speed to Market Mattered
To prepare for this expansion, the multinational firm with operations in the United States, London, Dubai and Sydney, Australia, has raised over $3.7 billion in capital through nine funding rounds as of mid-February. The company with a market cap of $250 billion was set to raise another $2.5 billion based upon a market valuation of $28 billion, according to a TechStartups.com report on February 10. Over the last 12 months, Anduril’s stock price has risen 370%. During that time, the firm’s annual revenue doubled to $1 billion.
On January 27, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said, “These investments are propelling Ohio into a future defined by innovation, cutting-edge technology and unmatched opportunity. Anduril is not only revolutionizing America’s defense industry, but it’s joining the wave of coastal companies expanding to Ohio and bringing thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in capital investment to the ‘Heart of it All.’ ”
“This is one of our biggest wins. This sends a real signal that Ohio is a manufacturing state and is focused on the future.”
— Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine
The Costa Mesa, California–based company that was founded in 2017 said publicly that it chose Ohio for its pro-business environment, infrastructure, skilled manufacturing workforce and long history of military and federal partnerships.
Following a nationwide site search, Anduril chose a tract in Pickaway County next to Rickenbacker Airport, an old military base that now serves as one of the nation’s busiest air cargo hubs for logistics operations.
Zachary Mears, senior vice president of strategy for Anduril, says the impetus for the project was the need to find a location where the company could engage in “larger-rate production of the full class of our products. To do that, we needed to spend the time to invest our capital to build out the kind of facility to develop the Arsenal-1 manufacturing campus. We began evaluating sites in the states about a year ago.”
Mears says “we looked across the continental U.S. according to the core criteria we had. We have pretty aggressive timelines to do this.” Prime factors included characteristics of the land; access to water; logistics and infrastructure support; density of workforce; and “a clear track record of 2-year to 4-year education to produce engineers and technicians.”
“We looked across the continental U.S. according to the core criteria we had. We have pretty aggressive timelines to do this.”
— Zachary Mears, Senior Vice President and Head of Strategy, Anduril Industries
Based upon those criteria, says Mears, “we narrowed our list down to a set of states.”
Asked how important it was to find a partner willing to invest incentives into the project, Mears says, “It was quite important. We are making our own sizable investment. We are looking for state and local partners who recognize the value of the jobs we are creating at the Arsenal-1 site.”
Asked specifically about Ohio’s incentives package, he says, “We took it as a sign that there is a clear thesis, and it aligns well with our objectives. They support a package that we believe will meet our needs.”
Mears credits the teams at JobsOhio, One Columbus and Pickaway County for being responsive and helpful. “One thing that stood out early in our engagements and was true throughout the entire process was that it truly was a state effort,” he says. “There was a clear commitment from the Governor’s Office, and J.P. Nauseef [president and CEO of JobsOhio] was committed to bringing the best package they could.”
Mears made it clear that this would not be Anduril’s only expansion. “We are investing in our plants in Rhode Island and Mississippi. We also have production capabilities just outside of Atlanta,” he says. “We are building and investing in a manufacturing design for the future. You will see continued growth for us, including factory growth.”
DeWine: Ohio Sends a Statement
Nauseef says Ohio had to pull out all the stops to win this one.
“They (Anduril) looked at more than 400 sites and more than one in Ohio,” he says. “It all happened very quickly. Preparation met opportunity when they met with us for the first time last summer. Our outstanding team at JobsOhio did what they do. They curated an incentives package. Gov. Mike DeWine was personally involved, as was then-Lieutenant Governor and now U.S. Senator Jon Husted.”
Speed to market was a critical factor, adds Nauseef. “They needed a place where they could get up and running very quickly so that they could be in production by late 2026,” the JobsOhio CEO says. “They needed access to a skilled workforce, proximity to testing infrastructure and proximity to their main customer.”
By locating near Wright Patterson Air Force Base and a testing site in Springfield, Ohio, Anduril checked every box, says Nauseef. “We had to move very fast. Access to the main runway at Rickenbacker Airport, a true multimodal site, helped seal the deal. We showed them other multimodal sites in the state, but in the end, they chose this one because it had everything they needed.”
In an exclusive interview, Gov. DeWine tells Site Selection that “the ability to manufacture here and immediately test what they are producing were the two biggest factors.” For Ohio, he says, the win sends a massive statement to the marketplace and the country.
“This is one of our biggest wins,” DeWine says. “Over 4,000 workers making an average of over $60 an hour, plus all the suppliers that will locate close to them — this sends a real signal that Ohio is a manufacturing state and is focused on the future. Anduril is a collaborative aircraft company, and we think this company will continue to grow.”
Mears says Anduril currently employs more than 4,300 people worldwide. “We have proven success in delivering a best-in-class product to our customers. We will produce many of our air-related products at the new site in Ohio,” he says. “We are one of two collaborative performers in this field. We will also produce our sets of related products including our family of cruise missiles — our Barracuda and our Roadrunner product.”
The company previously stated that the ongoing war in Ukraine exposed a critical gap in the production supply chain for the U.S. Department of Defense. “The conflict in Ukraine has exposed a critical vulnerability in the United States’ ability to respond to crisis,” the company said on its Rebuildthearsenal.com website. “In a major conflict, use of weapons and munitions would quickly exceed supply. It is projected that the U.S. would run out of weapons in the first few weeks. At the same time, the traditional defense industrial base has faced significant challenges in scaling production to meet demands. Slow and low production rates, inflexible processes and the development of exquisite, defense-specific, bespoke systems have hindered the ability to respond quickly to need. Lead times to replenish key weapons and munitions average two years.”
Anduril plans to correct that through a commitment to “agile, responsive manufacturing,” the company added.
50 States Tried, One Triumphed
Kenny McDonald, president and CEO of One Columbus, says it took every ounce of agility and responsiveness Ohio had to win the deal. “It was a true 50-state competition,” he says. “We won because we had an extremely special site and because of the sheer scale of manufacturing capacity in Ohio. We went from first meeting with them last August to closing the deal in just a few months. They had a shortlist of finalists in mind when they came to us. All parties involved in Ohio were instrumental in getting this deal done.”
Access to the main runway at nearby Rickenbacker International Airport helped seal the Anduril deal, says JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef.
Photo courtesy of Columbus Regional Airport Authority
Tim Colburn, executive director of Pickaway Progress Partnership in Pickaway County, says the seeds for success were sown when state and federal leaders transformed Rickenbacker Airport into a community asset.
“You can’t celebrate your successes today without celebrating your heritage,” he says. “It took tons of collaboration and engagement to get us here. We began swinging in a big way at project leads. About six or seven big projects came by the last several years and we swung for all of them, but we did not win any. We learned a lot from not landing those projects.”
Around Labor Day 2024, Colburn and other local partners hosted Anduril executives for a site visit. “It was called Project Thor,” he says. “Our utility partners at Buckeye Power and others hosted them on the runway at Rickenbacker. They had a requirement for an existing building that they could move into quickly. Fortunately, we had a spec warehouse that enabled them to get in the door.”
Colburn says the region of over a million people will supply an ample, well-trained workforce.
“We have about 60,000 people in Pickaway County. Circleville, the county seat, is 14 miles from the site. Downtown Columbus is just 16 miles from it,” he says. “This will be a game-changer for Pickaway County.”
