A California-based defense contractor with operations in Quincy plans to make autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) at a new, custom-built facility at Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
Anduril Industries Inc. said Tuesday it had chosen Rhode Island due to support from state officials, a skilled workforce, logistical help from leaders at Quonset, and proximity to Quincy, where Anduril runs its marine-engineering office.
The AUVs — each “around the size of a Volkswagen bus” — will have hulls that are 3-D printed at the new facility. The customized builds can be “configured for a variety of missions, depending upon what the client is looking for,” a spokesperson said. Anduril plans to produce around 200 AUVs per year for military and civilian clients in Rhode Island via its Dive-LD division.
The company said it had won a suite of state tax breaks to help support the $8.3 million factory build. The facility is is slated to open in fourth-quarter 2025.
The tax incentives approved by the Rhode Island Commerce Corp. Monday night include $2.49 million in Rebuild RI funds and $2.9 million in qualified job tax credits, according to the Providence Journal.
The unmanned vessels, propelled with electric engines, are remote-controlled.
“It is ideal for a variety of missions, such as undersea battlespace intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, mine counter-warfare, anti-submarine warfare, seafloor mapping and more,” Anduril says of its Dive-LD AUV.
The Quonset facility will be in addition to the facility in Quincy, where AUV prototyping and production is already taking place, the company said.
The privately held Anduril, founded in 2017, has around 2,400 employees. It supports command and control of autonomous missions through a proprietary technology platform called Lattice OS.
“Anduril puts products ahead of process and builds technology to bring the United States and partners quantum leaps ahead in capability,” the company says of its mission.