Anduril announced plans to build a “software-defined shipyard” to supply critical components for the US Navy’s most advanced submarines, signalling the Silicon Valley firm’s latest move into the heart of the country’s defence establishment. The upstart drone and missile maker, founded by Palmer Luckey in 2017, will receive $2.9bn from the US Navy and invest $3.7bn of its own capital in a new 2mn square foot “Arsenal-2” facility at Sparrows Point, Maryland. The components made at the facility, which once hosted a Bethlehem Steel mill, will be used in Virginia-class nuclear attack submarines. Anduril’s shipyard is expected to create about 3,000 direct jobs and begin production in 2030.
The announcement comes as the Trump administration attempts to reform Pentagon procurement in order to reduce dependence on leading “prime” contractors in favour of a new generation of AI-savvy defence tech firms. It also reflects alarm in Washington about the moribund state of the US shipbuilding industry and the ability of American naval shipyards to keep up with the industrial might of their Chinese counterparts. The Virginia-class programme, overseen by prime contractors General Dynamics and Huntington Ingalls Industries, is supposed to build at a rate of more than two boats a year but has managed little over one boat a year amid chronic skill shortages.
Anduril is playing a prominent role in Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defence initiative, and last week Trump’s defence secretary Pete Hegseth appointed Luckey and SpaceX founder Elon Musk alongside former House speaker Newt Gingrich to a task force examining the future of US warfare, technology and defence procurement. Christian Brose, Anduril’s president, told reporters that “the core insight the [Trump] administration had and the navy had is we just need new production capacity.”
The Sparrows Point facility will use Anduril’s software to “connect fabrication workflows, outfitting sequences, material movement, inspection protocols and documentation requirements in a single system.” It marks Anduril’s latest step into shipbuilding following its 2025 partnership with Korean shipbuilding giant HD Hyundai Heavy Industries to produce autonomous surface vehicles, and its facility in Sydney, Australia, manufacturing Ghost Shark autonomous undersea vehicles.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing