Following a fireside chat at the 18th annual UAS Summit and Expo, U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and defense entrepreneur and founder of Anduril Industries, Palmer Luckey, participated in a townhall with students at the University of North Dakota (UND). The discussion focused on the topic of how small, nimble defense companies like Anduril are “rebooting the arsenal of democracy.”

U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer and Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril Industries, attended the 18th annual Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Summit and Expo in Grand Forks, with hundreds of UAS industry leaders and policymakers from across the country gathering in North Dakota. They discussed how policymakers can break through tradition to unleash the potential of private sector and startups like Anduril while encouraging the government to match the speed of business.

U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer announced tech billionaire and defense entrepreneur, Palmer Luckey, will be his guest at this year’s UAS Summit and Expo in Grand Forks, Oct. 8 and 9. Luckey is best known for founding Oculus VR when he was 20 years old. At age 22, he sold the company to Meta for $2 billion in cash and stock. In 2017, he founded Anduril Industries, a defense technology company focused on autonomous drones and sensors for military applications.

The U.S. Navy announced a $14,499,109 contract with Ideal Aerosmith, Inc. for the development of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) technology. Specifically, the contract will reimburse costs associated with hardware in the loop, software in the loop, and inspection and testing methodologies enabling attributable unmanned system development.