President Donald Trump traveled to Maryland on Tuesday to highlight a $6.6 billion Anduril Industries and U.S. Navy investment that will establish a major manufacturing facility for Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarine components at Sparrows Point.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
President Donald Trump traveled to the Baltimore area Tuesday to promote a multibillion-dollar expansion of America’s submarine industrial base, with defense technology company Anduril Industries committing $3.7 billion in private capital to build a new shipyard for Virginia-class submarine components.
The project, known as Arsenal-2, will be constructed at Tradepoint Atlantic in Sparrows Point, the former Bethlehem Steel complex in Baltimore County. The U.S. Navy has separately awarded Anduril a contract worth up to $2.9 billion, bringing the combined commitment associated with the project to approximately $6.6 billion.
Trump was scheduled to deliver remarks at the groundbreaking event at 4 p.m. Eastern. His appearance can be viewed here.
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Anduril plans to invest $3.7 billion of its own capital in the approximately 2 million-square-foot manufacturing complex, which will produce critical components and large assemblies for the Navy’s Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines.
Initial production is expected to include components such as torpedo tubes, doors and other large submarine assemblies that will later be shipped to the nation’s primary nuclear-submarine shipyards for final integration.
General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, and Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia currently perform final construction of Virginia-class submarines. Arsenal-2 is intended to expand the supply chain feeding those yards and relieve production bottlenecks that have prevented the Navy from meeting its desired submarine construction rate.
Anduril expects the Maryland project to create more than 3,100 direct jobs and support more than 14,000 jobs overall, including construction and indirect employment. Maryland officials estimate the facility will eventually generate more than $2 billion in annual economic activity and approximately $312 million in yearly wages.
The company expects initial operations to begin around 2030, with production increasing thereafter.
The development represents the largest single private investment in Maryland in more than a decade and one of the state’s largest recent job-creation projects, according to state economic-development officials.
The site carries substantial industrial history. Bethlehem Steel’s Sparrows Point complex once operated one of the world’s largest steel mills and produced ships for the United States during both world wars before its decline and eventual closure.
Anduril’s investment will return large-scale defense manufacturing to the property.
The company has described Arsenal-2 as a “software-defined” shipyard designed to apply automation, robotics and modern manufacturing techniques to a defense-industrial sector that has struggled with lengthy production schedules and a shortage of skilled workers.
The Navy has been attempting for years to increase production of Virginia-class attack submarines but has consistently fallen short of its goal of delivering two boats annually.
The new Maryland facility is intended to manufacture sections and components away from the final assembly yards, allowing Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding to focus more resources on integrating and completing submarines.
The Virginia class is the Navy’s principal nuclear-powered attack submarine currently in production. The vessels are designed for missions including anti-submarine warfare, intelligence collection, surveillance, special operations and strikes against land targets.
Expanding submarine production has become a major Pentagon priority as the United States seeks to increase its undersea capabilities, particularly in response to China’s rapidly expanding military and naval forces.
The Baltimore project also marks a significant expansion for Anduril.
Founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey and several partners, the company initially became known for autonomous drones, artificial-intelligence systems, surveillance technology and other newer defense products rather than traditional large-scale shipbuilding.
Arsenal-2 will put the company directly into the supply chain of one of the Pentagon’s largest and most technologically complex weapons programs.
Anduril said its private investment exceeds the value of the Navy contract and is structured so the company assumes much of the financial risk associated with constructing and operating the new facility.
The Navy’s commitment of up to $2.9 billion will be tied to submarine components produced at the facility.
Trump has increasingly highlighted domestic factory and defense investments as part of his administration’s broader effort to expand American manufacturing.
Tuesday’s event gives the White House an opportunity to point to a major industrial project combining private investment, military production and thousands of manufacturing jobs.
The administration has also made revitalizing U.S. shipbuilding a strategic priority, arguing that decades of declining domestic capacity have left the United States too dependent on a small number of shipyards and suppliers.
Arsenal-2 is intended to address part of that problem by creating an additional high-volume source for submarine sections that can be transported to existing shipbuilders.
The project would represent a major transformation of Sparrows Point, shifting part of the former steelmaking site back toward the defense manufacturing role it played during the 20th century.
Once fully operational, Anduril expects the plant to become one of Maryland’s largest private employers and a significant new supplier to the U.S. nuclear-submarine fleet.
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