Anduril is establishing a new shipyard to manufacture parts for Virginia-class submarines in Baltimore County, Md., the company and the White Houseannounced, Breaking Defense reports.
The new facility, dubbed Arsenal-2, comes with a $6.6 billion investment, including $3.7 billion in private capital and up to $2.9 billion from the Navy. And notably, today’s announcement marks Anduril’s first entry into the supply chain for a major legacy defense program.
“This contract structure ensures that Anduril, not the taxpayer, takes on the majority of the execution risk, aligning incentives to ensure on-time, high-quality submarine production,” Anduril said.
President Donald Trump also issued remarks today in Baltimore County as part of the new shipyard announcement, with the littoral combat ship Billings behind him. Trump claimed that the US is ushering in a golden age of shipbuilding, and that Arsenal-2 would lead the way in that endeavor.
“What we see today will be nothing when you come back in one year, and when you come back in two years, you’re not going to believe what you see,” Trump said. “Generations ago, these grounds hummed with the sound of hammers…carving out some of the most beautiful wooden ships…Now, with the men and women of Anduril, the workers of Maryland, and the warriors of the US Navy, this place will roar with the sound of high-tech manufacturing, building ships, and submarines that will be feared by our enemies all over the world.”
General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding jointly build Virginia-class submarines, and Arsenal-2 is positioned to produce “complex components and large scale assemblies” for the vessels, according to the company. Supporting the submarine industrial base is a top priority for the Navy, as industry has struggled to hit the service’s annual production goals for the Virginia-class.
“Adding another source of this work will allow more submarine construction to happen in parallel across the industrial base and increase the overall capacity available to the Virginia-class program,” Anduril said in its release.
