Anduril Wins $363M CBP Deal

Anduril Industries has landed a $362.97 million U.S. Customs and Border Protection order to buy surveillance towers for the Border Patrol. (usaspending.gov) The award was posted as a delivery order from the Department of Homeland Security with a start date of December 25, 2025, an end date of December 24, 2026, and the description “purchase of towers.” It lists the full obligation at $362,974,500. (usaspending.gov) The order sits under a longer-running indefinite-delivery contract that U.S. Customs and Border Protection awarded to Anduril on July 2, 2020 for “Small Business Innovation Research-Autonomous Surveillance Towers.” That parent contract runs through July 1, 2029 and shows about $861.7 million in combined awards so far. (usaspending.gov) An autonomous surveillance tower is a remote sensor mast that scans with radar, points cameras at movement, and uses software to flag people or vehicles for agents to review. Customs and Border Protection said when it made the system a formal program in 2020 that agents still make the final determination after the tower sends an alert. (cbp.gov) Customs and Border Protection first piloted the towers in San Diego in 2018, then said in July 2020 that it had procured 56 towers and planned to reach 200 in fiscal years 2021 and 2022. Anduril said in September 2024 that its 300th autonomous surveillance tower had been deployed for Customs and Border Protection and that the systems covered about 30% of the southern land border. (cbp.gov) (anduril.com) Congress has kept steering money toward the tower buildout. A House appropriations report for fiscal year 2025 recommended $50.6 million for autonomous surveillance towers, while Customs and Border Protection’s earlier budget documents and public statements described the towers as part of a broader technology push at the border. (congress.gov) (dhs.gov) Civil-liberties groups have pushed back on the expansion. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said on April 3, 2026 that its border surveillance map had grown to 589 towers and argued that Customs and Border Protection was building out a larger “virtual wall” after earlier tower programs drew criticism over cost and effectiveness. (eff.org) The Department of Homeland Security says its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties reviews complaints tied to department policies and activities, including those involving Customs and Border Protection. That leaves Anduril’s latest order looking less like a one-off purchase and more like another large installment in a long federal border-surveillance buildout. (dhs.gov) (usaspending.gov)