Anduril founder makes the rounds on Capitol Hill, senators call him a ‘rock star’

Republican lawmakers met with tech billionaire Palmer Luckey at a private lunch on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

Senators said Mr. Luckey, founder of the defense contracting firm Anduril, had a wide-ranging conversation with them about the state of U.S. defense production, missile stockpiles and new developing technologies for the U.S. military.

The 33-year-old Mr. Luckey has become a major face of the new era in defense technology, with members of Congress and their staff recognizing him instantly, calling him a “rock star” and happily acknowledging the relatively newfound success of Costa Mesa, California-based Andruil.

The company was listed as one of the top 100 largest contractors for the department last year in terms of money obligated to them.

“He has a keen intellect,” Sen. Roger Wicker, Kentucky Republican and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Threat Status at The Washington Times after Wednesday’s lunch. “We should have him back every week.”

While other members of Mr. Wicker’s committee weren’t so effusive, most responded well to Mr. Luckey.

“He’s very well respected,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, Missouri Republican, who said part of the conversation focused on “what [is] on the horizon” for U.S. defense production.

Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, said there was discussion on how the U.S. can “make more of what we need, some of which we’re expending in Iran.”

Mr. Luckey has a reputation for drawing crowds in Washington. Several Senate Republicans not on the Armed Services Committee made time for Wednesday’s lunch. Sens. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, Steve Daines, Montana Republican, and John Hoeven, North Dakota Republican, were all in attendance.

Mr. Luckey has gone on an influence tour over the past week, taking interviews as the Anduril Ohio factory, named Arsenal 1, is set to open later this month.

The tour also comes as the company looks to start being publicly traded.

Current estimates put Anduril at a near $60 billion valuation, doubled from last year, as it looks to possibly go public.

In an interview with Axios, Mr. Luckey talked about everything from using the Earth’s crust as a battlefield — “the same way that a submarine moves through the ocean” — to weighing in on the Pentagon’s recent falling out with AI company Anthropic. He also said Anduril is deliberately shifting its financials to be in a better place for a public offering.

Mr. Luckey has previously said he wants Anduril to act as “the world’s gun store” and claimed it “will save the taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars a year as we make tens of billions of dollars.”

The company has said it spent $900 million in investment to build Arsenal 1, a facility with enough square footage to fit the U.S. Capitol building inside its footprint — three U.S. Capitol buildings, in fact.

“He believes in saving taxpayer dollars and the world has become a dangerous place, so we’re going to have to figure this out,” Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican, told Threat Status. “We’ve got to drive down the cost of development.”

Part of Wednesday’s lunch discussion focused on concerns over complex missiles and rockets being fired by U.S. forces against Iran.

Mr. Scott said Mr. Luckey spoke to how the U.S. needed to “dramatically ramp up our approach” to rocket production and explore possible “alternatives.”

One topic of conversation missing from the lunch: Anduril’s recent $20 billion Pentagon contract for the company’s “Lattice” command and control software.

The $20 billion contract is one of the biggest announced over the past year.

Mr. Scott told The Times that Andril “consolidated a whole bunch of contracts” as part of the “Lattice” deal.

U.S. military officials have billed it as a way to purchase “a cutting-edge command-and-control solution.”

“This is a decisive move against a pervasive and growing threat,” U.S. Army Col. Tony Lindh, the task force deputy director of acquisitions, said in a recent statement.

A Pentagon website has stated that the contract is part of the military’s pursuit of a “common technological backbone,” specifically to be competitive against small drones. “For the first time,” it stated, “we have a clear path to true interoperability across the department and our interagency partners.”

It has also described the Anduril contract as a development “centralizing procurement” to “reduce duplicative purchases” and possibly “achieve greater pricing transparency and cost savings.”

The big money flowing toward Anduril, coupled with the recent rounds of private funding, has pushed the company into territory occupied by historic suppliers for the U.S. government known as defense contracting “primes.”

Companies such as BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX Corporation, and Boeing may soon find a new associated name on the list. All of those companies are in the “top ten DoD slots over the last five fiscal years,” according to the General Services Administration.

Republicans aren’t letting that tarnish their public shine to Mr. Luckey.

“I think he’s a national treasure,” said Mr. Cornyn. “He’s just talking about how things have changed for the better and what the threats are out there.”