By Nathan Gomes, Shivansh Tiwary and Trevor Hunnicutt
Oct 6 (Reuters) – Defense tech firm Anduril unveiled plans on Tuesday for a $3.7 billion shipyard in Maryland, and President Donald Trump was due to join an announcement ceremony for the project expected to generate 3,100 jobs and receive a $2.9 billion US Navy contract.
Anduril said the new high-tech shipyard at Sparrows Point, Maryland, near the Port of Baltimore would make components for the Navy’s Virginia-class submarines.
The Navy on Tuesday awarded Anduril a $2.9 billion contract to manufacture submarine components including torpedo tubes and doors.
The investment and associated contract, together valued at up to $6.6 billion, come amid a broader push by the United States and its allies to expand arms production following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East.
The project puts Trump in rare alignment with a frequent critic, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, a Democrat who is seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate.
Ahead of November’s congressional elections, Trump is working to show that his policies have bolstered jobs and manufacturing while polls have shown that Trump’s Republicans have lost voter support, largely over cost-of-living concerns.
The president has argued that his tariffs and industrial policy will revive US factory work, from steelmaking to shipbuilding. Anduril’s location in Maryland was formerly home to a large steel mill that went through decades of financial decline and closed in bankruptcy in 2012.
Trump is touring the country in a pre-election blitz, announcing or claiming credit for a range of private-sector investments and government spending initiatives he has called “goodies.”
The new plant, dubbed Arsenal-2, is expected to be operational by the end of the decade, creating 3,100 direct jobs and supporting over 11,000 indirect jobs.
Anduril is building another facility in California to manufacture Virginia-class submarine components and plans to expand into producing larger submarine modules and hull sections once its Baltimore shipyard becomes operational.
Virginia-class submarines, which can travel at over 25 knots, are the Navy’s latest generation of nuclear-powered attack submarines, designed for anti-submarine warfare, land-attack strikes and surveillance missions.
General Dynamics’ Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries jointly build the submarines.
Anduril, founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey, is a defense firm that is best known for its autonomous systems, drones and software built for the US military and its allies.
Anduril’s $1 billion Arsenal-1 facility in Ohio began producing autonomous combat drones this year.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicut and Mike Stone in Washington, Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Cynthia Osterman)
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