Anduril Industries and Rheinmetall have announced a new strategic partnership aimed at developing and producing advanced autonomous air systems and solid rocket motors for European defence.
The collaboration will focus initially on three core areas: integrating a European variant of Anduril’s Barracuda loitering munition, adapting the company’s high-performance Fury autonomous air vehicle for European users, and exploring new approaches to producing solid rocket motors within Europe.
The companies say the goal is to deliver fast, scalable and sovereign capabilities aligned with NATO requirements, moving away from legacy models of procurement that can lead to dependency and slow delivery.
“This is a different model of defence collaboration, one built on shared production, operational relevance, and mutual respect for sovereignty,” said Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf. “Together with Rheinmetall, we’re building systems that can be produced quickly, deployed widely, and adapted as NATO missions evolve.”
Rheinmetall’s chief executive Armin Papperger said the move reflects the company’s ongoing efforts to bring reliable, scalable systems into the service of European allies. “By integrating Anduril’s solutions into our European production and digital sovereignty framework, we’re bringing new autonomous capabilities into service—ones that are modular, quickly produced, and aligned with evolving NATO requirements.”
What’s in scope
- Barracuda: Anduril’s low-cost, modular autonomous air vehicle, optimised for mass production and rapid adaptation to changing missions, will be adapted for European use. The system has seen strong interest in NATO circles as a scalable loitering munition with multi-role potential.
- Fury: This Group 5 autonomous aircraft, designed to operate as part of manned-unmanned air teams, will be tailored to fit Rheinmetall’s command-and-control ecosystem. The platform supports advanced sensors and a wide range of payloads, giving users flexibility for ISR, strike or EW missions.
- Solid rocket motors: The companies will explore how Anduril’s newer manufacturing approaches could support European requirements, ensuring access to propulsion systems when domestic capacity is limited or at risk.
The companies are positioning this agreement as a response to calls from European governments for greater local control over defence supply chains and faster access to emerging technologies. They emphasise that these systems will be jointly developed with input from suppliers and industrial partners across Europe.
Anduril and Rheinmetall have previously collaborated on counter-drone technology and participated jointly in the US Army’s Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle programme. The new agreement signals a deepening of that relationship, and a shared commitment to modular, fast-paced development over closed, proprietary systems.
As Europe seeks to adapt more quickly to modern threats, including the increasing relevance of drone warfare, AI and contested airspace, this partnership offers an alternative to traditional platform-centric defence procurement.
This does not sound very autonomous if they are caught by ITAR.
That’s what I was thinking, does it give Europe autonomous vital weaponry production or just deepens reliance on pleasing effectively one man (be it now or even less reliably in the future potentially) and his fickle control over European capability to fight other than as directed by him (unlikely to be a her)
I don’t know.
Drones are the future I’m afraid. Any company not getting involved it some way is likely to go bust.