Gecko Robotics, Anduril to Accelerate American Shipbuilding with Robotics, AI
Gecko Robotics announced a partnership with Anduril Industries to help accelerate American shipbuilding using advanced robotics, AI-powered software, and automated quality assurance.
The partnership will support Anduril's Arsenal-2, a new software-defined shipyard in Baltimore County, Maryland, announced as part of the company's $3.7 billion investment to expand production for the Virginia-class submarine program. Gecko's technology will be deployed at Anduril's new 160,000-square-foot protofactory in Orange County, California, where key submarine components will be manufactured.
Working with other customers across the defense industrial base, Gecko's technology has already reduced inspection timelines for forged components by up to 90%, improving cost and schedule performance for the U.S. Navy. By embedding inspection expertise directly into software and robotics, Gecko enables workers with no prior NDT experience to become productive in as little as an hour of training, allowing manufacturers to expand qualified inspection capacity without relying solely on scarce specialist labor. As demand for submarines and other naval systems continues to rise, expanding the available workforce will be just as important as expanding production facilities.
The partnership reflects a broader transformation underway across the defense industrial base. As Anduril develops software-defined production systems through ArsenalOS, Gecko provides real-time intelligence and data on physical assets that are essential for military grade manufacturing operations. Every assessment of new build components contributes to a continuously evolving digital thread that follows critical components from manufacturing through decades of operational service.
That digital thread creates more than quality records. This approach also streamlines maintenance planning and reduces unplanned maintenance costs and repairs, ensuring optimal performance over the lifetime of the fleet. This lack of data and insight plagues ships around the world with unexpected downtime.
