One lesson on wrangling equipment arrived within months. A recently hired maintenance technician trying to clean out a fairly new machine disconnected a part before turning off power—a clear lapse in what should have been protocol, two people say. Aluminium powder blew onto people’s hair and coats. No one was hurt, but more significant inhalation could have caused breathing problems.
Not long after, another big moment turned sour. On July 1, construction crews handed over the keys to Roberto, the mass production hub for McHenry’s rocket motors. A handful of site leaders dined at Buffalo Wild Wings that night to mark the milestone, two people say. But there was some unease about the road ahead. Producing a solid rocket motor in Roberto would take 28 days, the two people say. But Anduril was due to have its first few inert—or nonexplosive—motors from Roberto just three days later.
The morning after the dinner, on July 2, the head of production was let go and escorted out of the McHenry complex, two people say. A senior manager on the same team resigned minutes after, leaving his phone and badge with the security officer.
Executives including Keith Flynn, a former Tesla manager who is Anduril’s senior vice president of manufacturing, brought in a new regime, but problems persisted. Late last July, machines from the supplier Coperion—meant to automate the process of dosing chemicals for the propellant—started oozing, several people say. When the emergency stop buttons didn’t work, an inert hardening chemical spread on the floor. No one was injured, but the machines were inoperable until safety and quality could be ensured.
Anduril and Coperion representatives met daily for weeks on sometimes heated Zoom calls to try to resolve the issues. Coperion had long cautioned that its machine hadn’t been used for that application, three people say. A former Anduril employee says they “don’t know anybody who would want to use” that type of machine for “energetics,” referring to combustible chemicals. “I understand they make good dog food,” the person says. Coperion declined to comment for this story.
Anduril president and chief strategy officer Christian Brose has said the startup prioritizes products that can be reliably assembled in large volumes. But in Atlanta, three people say, components such as Altius’ wing would sometimes come out of assembly misaligned or malfunctioning because of complex designs. At least two workers say they chafed at the use of 3D printing and carbon fiber over conventional techniques and reliable materials. One person described the company’s “mentality” as “it knows better than its predecessors.”
In at least four separate military tests last year, Anduril systems, including two Altius drones, failed to perform as expected, according to reporting by the The Wall Street Journal and Reuters. At the time, executives said the point of testing was to identify issues: Anduril’s guiding philosophy has been to fail fast.
But some Atlanta workers offer mixed views on the company’s testing processes as of last year. For instance, pressure to constantly test Altius in a makeshift room at the factory, on a Georgia farm, and in the Chihuahuan Desert in Texas sometimes meant that data from the prior experiment hadn’t been processed by the time of the subsequent one, a former worker says. “You’ve got all these incredible engineers firing on all cylinders, and they’re getting frustrated because they can’t even learn from the test or take a breath,” the person says.