Anduril acquires Numerica’s radar and C2 business

Anduril has acquired the radar and command and control (C2) business of Numerica and will be integrating the company’s products into its existing offering, according to a 9th January press release. 

Numerica manufactures radars for air defence including its Spark and Spyglass radars that are used for short range air defence and vehicle protection. Spyglass is a Ku band radar that the company claims can detect the smallest UAVs at up to 6 km, all while emitting a minimal electromagnetic signature. 

Its Spark radar was launched in October 2024 and is designed to provide “hemispheric coverage,” which means it is capable of projecting a snow-globe-like sensor field around a vehicle or object. It is designed to be used as part of an active protection system and can detect FPVs, small UAVs, and RPGs. 

Anduril will also take on Numerica’s Mimir C2 system, which provides coordinated tracking and track correlation capabilities and theatre-wide sensor fusion, Anduril states, adding that Numerica’s solutions are part of priority US DoD air defence systems. Anduril will continue to deliver those capabilities. 

The priority air defence system Anduril is referring to is the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). Numerica states that “our technology operates at the very heart of the BMDS, leveraging state-of-the-art algorithms in estimation, probability, optimization and multi-sensor/multi-target tracking theory.” The BMDS employs multiple different air defence systems from the Aegis on the Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyers, to Patriot and THAAD batteries on land, as well as a range of different sensors. 

Numerica’s capabilities will be used to augment and complement Anduril’s existing sensors and its Lattice platform, which provides sensor fusion and C2 capabilities. The company also plans to manufacture the two Numerica radars at its Arsenal-1 factory. 

Company profile: Anduril

Since entering the defence market in 2017, Anduril has taken an assertive approach to establishing capabilities and market presence. In 2024 it announced Series F funding valued at $1.5 billion, with which it is building its Arsenal-1 “hyperscale factory”, which aims to produce capabilities like autonomous weapons at scale, using primarily US supply chains to provide the “arsenal of democracy.” The company’s seed funding was for an undisclosed amount, followed with a successful funding round each year out to 2020 bringing it to the Series C round, which brought $200 million to the business. Series D in 2021 came at $450 million, followed by Series E and F in 2022 and 2024, valued at $1.48 billion and $1.5 billion respectively. The company was valued at $14 billion at the time of the Series F announcement, a little over seven years since it was established. 

The company has won several contracts with the US DoD including a $249 million order for more than 500 of the company’s Roadrunner-M air defence systems and its Pulsar electronic warfare system. It has also expanded through acquisitions, including the purchase of Adranos, a solid rocket motor manufacturer, as well as several investments and contracts into recapitalising solid rocket motor production from the US DoD. Overall, it appears that tech companies like Anduril and Helsing are making a valuable contribution to the West’s defence industry, both in the scale of software and AI expertise they bring, as well as the additional funding and investment, which is a key component of re-establishing the West’s defence industrial base. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on 11th January 2025.