The United States Air Force (USAF) wants to have the ability to deliver supplies anywhere in the world within an hour. Therefore, the Rocket Experiment for Global Agile Logistics (REGAL) project has been underway since 2020. After appointing SpaceX and Rocket Lab to develop military cargo rockets, the USAF has now appointed Anduril and Blue Origin.
Blue Origin has aerospace expertise through the New Glenn and New Shepard rockets and has received a contract to build one of the Artemis Mission landing vehicles to the moon. Anduril is better known as a drone company that recently forayed into the missile production arena and took over the IVAS headset project for infantry from Microsoft.
Under the REGAL project, the cargo rocket must have the ability to carry cargo up to 82 tons, which is equivalent to the capacity of the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft currently in use.