Anduril in Talks to Acquire Nissan's Oppama Plant, Eyeing 64-Year-Old Auto Factory for Military Drone Production

U.S. defense tech startup Anduril Industries is in negotiations with Nissan to acquire the Oppama assembly plant in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, with plans to convert the 64-year-old facility into a military drone production base. Reuters first reported the story on June 25, 2026, citing three sources familiar with the negotiations. No agreement has been signed, and Nissan says it is still evaluating other potential buyers — though the news was enough to send Nissan's Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed shares higher that same afternoon.

The Oppama site is substantial: 1.7 million square meters (approximately 18.3 million square feet), with research laboratories, a test track, dock facilities, and around 2,400 employees. Opened in 1961, the plant has produced approximately 18 million vehicles over six decades and was the birthplace of the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle in 2010. The site sits adjacent to the Yokosuka Naval Base — headquarters of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and the only base outside the United States to host a forward-deployed U.S. Navy carrier strike group. For a company focused on autonomous weapons development, the location is a near-perfect fit.

Anduril Pushes for Made-in-Japan Drone Manufacturing

Over the past year, Anduril has moved aggressively to manufacture in Japan rather than simply export hardware. The company established a Japanese subsidiary, Anduril Industries Japan, in Tokyo in December 2025. To meet Japanese domestic content requirements, Anduril built a prototype drone using entirely Japanese-made components, naming it "Kizuna" (絆) — meaning "bond" or "connection." The Oppama acquisition talks represent the next step toward taking that prototype to mass production.

The significance of this move cannot be overstated. Japan's conventional practice for procuring U.S.-designed weapons involves domestic prime contractors such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries obtaining licenses to manufacture locally, rather than allowing foreign companies to operate their own production facilities on Japanese soil. A fully Anduril-operated weapons factory would break that mold, potentially triggering regulatory scrutiny under Japan's Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, as well as broader concerns about foreign control over defense production.

Political tailwinds do exist, however. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's government is actively promoting expanded domestic weapons production, driven by concerns that in the event of a Taiwan Strait crisis drawing Japan into conflict, munitions stockpiles would be depleted far faster than industry could replenish them. Tokyo is expected to release a new national security strategy this year that could accelerate drone and munitions procurement. Japan has designated drones as a critical commodity and set a target of producing 80,000 domestically per year by 2030 — a massive gap compared to the approximately 1,000 units produced domestically in 2024. Anduril is positioning itself to fill that gap.

Exporting the Ohio Model

The Oppama plan is effectively an overseas version of Anduril's "Arsenal-1" strategy. Arsenal-1 is Anduril's massive factory complex near Columbus, Ohio — an investment of more than $900 million, spanning 5 million square feet, with a designed annual output of tens of thousands of autonomous systems, built around commercial off-the-shelf components and software-defined production lines. The Fury combat drone entered mass production at the facility in March 2026, several months ahead of an original July target, marking a key milestone following the YFQ-44A's first flight in October 2025.

The logic linking Ohio and Yokosuka is automotive: standardized tooling, rapid line changeover capability, and a workforce accustomed to high-volume manufacturing rather than bespoke craftsmanship. Anduril has already validated this approach through its partnership with General Motors (GM) in the United States. Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi made the same point in parliament in April of this year. An idle Nissan plant staffed by 2,400 workers already skilled in complex high-volume manufacturing is close to ideal for Anduril's purposes — and the company has offered to retrain Oppama workers for defense production.

There is also a personal dimension. The Oppama plant happens to fall within Koizumi's parliamentary constituency. He met Anduril founder Palmer Luckey when Luckey visited Tokyo in December for the Japanese subsidiary's launch, and Koizumi subsequently posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Japan "has a lot to learn from Anduril." Any politician would welcome the story of a foreign defense company reopening a shuttered factory in their district and creating thousands of jobs.

Significant Hurdles Remain

The acquisition is far from certain, and the conditions ahead remain demanding. Nissan has confirmed it plans to close the Oppama plant in 2028 as part of its "Re:Nissan" restructuring program — which consolidates production at Nissan Kyushu — but says it is still in talks with multiple potential buyers and has not made a decision on the site's future. Anduril has not even determined how much of the facility it would need, and sources did not indicate whether a specific purchase price has been proposed.

The more critical threshold is on the demand side. Anduril needs procurement contracts from the Japanese military to underpin the commercial logic of buying the plant. A factory without contracts is simply expensive real estate. Anduril has declined to comment on what it calls "market speculation," stating only that it is working with Japan to explore ways to strengthen local production. The company also faces competition from Ukrainian manufacturers whose drones have been battle-tested against Russian forces — a form of operational credibility that Anduril's own products have yet to fully match.

On the financial side, Anduril's position is strong. The company closed a Series H funding round in May 2026, raising $5 billion at a valuation of $61 billion — roughly double its mid-2025 valuation — with full-year 2025 revenue of $2.2 billion. The company has also continued to secure allied-nation production agreements, including a $20 billion U.S. Army counter-drone framework contract awarded in March of this year.

DroneXL's Take

Stripped of the "iPhone moment for Japan's defense industry" framing that has dominated media coverage, what is actually happening is clearer and more interesting: a U.S. startup is trying to replicate in Japan the lesson that every country taking drones seriously has absorbed from the Ukraine war — the side that can manufacture low-cost autonomous systems at scale wins; the side relying on premium hardware and decade-long procurement cycles does not. Anduril has identified that the fastest path to mass production is not building a defense factory from scratch, but taking over a factory where the lights are still on and 2,400 workers already know how to make things in volume. Ohio proved the model; Yokosuka tests whether it can cross an ocean.

One point demands honesty: Anduril's marketing sometimes outruns its operational record. Reuters investigative reporting found that Ghost and Altius drones struggled against Russian electronic warfare in Ukraine, and 96% of front-line drones deployed in 2024 were Ukrainian-made. A factory does not solve a hardware problem. If the drones Anduril produces at a converted Oppama plant prove no more survivable in contested airspace than models already deployed in Ukraine, Japan will have traded an auto factory for an expensive lesson. Building the facility is the easy part. The drones themselves still have to work.

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Sources: Reuters, Business+IT (ビジネス+IT). DroneXL used automated tools to assist with research and source identification. All reporting and editorial commentary written by Haye Kesteloo.

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