Anduril establishes new shipyard to manufacture components for Virginia-class subs

A sign for Anduril at the AFA 2022 Air, Space and Cyber Conference. (Justin Katz/Breaking Defense)

WASHINGTON — Anduril is establishing a new shipyard to manufacture parts for Virginia-class submarines in Baltimore County, Md., the company and the White House announced today.

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 in a news release today.

President Donald Trump is also expected to issue remarks later today in Baltimore County as part of the new shipyard announcement.

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.

Anduril anticipates that the shipyard will create more than 3,000 direct jobs and more than 11,000 indirect jobs at the new facility, which is located at Tradepoint Atlantic in Baltimore County, Md. The 2 million-square-foot facility is expected to launch initial operations in 2030, and permitting is slated to kick off immediately, paving the way for construction to start once the firm receives the appropriate administrative green lights.

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Chris Brose, Anduril’s president and chief strategy officer, told reporters today that the company has been discussing the need for additional shipyard production capacity with the administration and Navy for nearly two years.

“We need to grow the maritime industrial base, the submarine industrial base, so that we can produce more submarines. So the goal here for Anduril is to contribute to that,” Brose said. “This is not about taking food off the plate of anybody. This is about putting more food on the table and being able to meet the requirements that our country has to produce more submarines.”

Anduril plans to initially produce basic modules, such as torpedo tubes, at the facility before eventually expanding into more complex components — including full sections of the vessels, such as the bow.

Anduril will also start to manufacture submarine parts at a new, 160,000-square-foot facility in Orange County, Calif., in tandem with the new Arsenal-2 facility. The Orange County location will support “broader maritime manufacturing efforts” once Arsenal-2 is up and running.

“The Orange County facility gives Anduril a two-year operational head start to develop and validate manufacturing methods, production workflows, and quality systems before Arsenal-2 comes online,” Anduril said in its release. “It will support prototyping and production of Virginia-class test assets and critical maritime components, including torpedo tubes, while allowing Anduril to recruit and train the early workforce on the systems and standards that will ultimately scale at Arsenal-2.”

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle told the House Appropriations Committee in May that he anticipates industry will deliver two Virginia-class submarines annually by around 2032. The Navy’s shipbuilding plan , also released in May, said investing in the submarine industrial base is paramount to meeting those production goals.

“The Navy’s requirement to increase the submarine production rate to at least one Columbia-class and two Virginia-class submarines per year remains the top industrial base priority, with a near-term focus on stabilizing the supply chain and growing the skilled workforce needed until full production rates are achieved,” the shipbuilding plan said.

However, the Virginia-class submarine program has encountered several hurdles connected to late material deliveries and a shortage of experienced workers, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released in July . While the Navy wants two Virginia-class submarines produced each year, shipbuilders were producing them at a rate of one per year as of June 2025, the GAO report said .

“Late material deliveries from suppliers and limited availability of experienced workers due to competition in the labor market drive these trends,” the GAO report said. “The Navy plans to improve performance by investing billions of dollars in the supply chain and shipbuilder wages, among other mitigation efforts.”

A senior administration official told reporters that Anduril’s plans for the facility would add roughly 9 million hours annually to the submarine industrial base, translating to a 15 percent increase for Virginia-class submarine production.

“Having those torpedo tubes earlier would let us move production of current Virginia submarines under construction faster … This brings both resilience and capacity to the submarine industrial base that should absolutely translate to improved Virginia-class construction,” a senior administration official said today.

在2022年美国航空航天学会（AFA）航空航天与网络会议上，安杜里尔公司的标志牌。（贾斯汀·卡茨/Breaking Defense）

华盛顿——安杜里尔公司和白宫今天宣布，该公司将在马里兰州巴尔的摩县建立一个新的造船厂，为弗吉尼亚级潜艇制造零部件。

这座名为“Arsenal-2”的新设施总投资达66亿美元，其中包括37亿美元的私人资本和海军提供的至多29亿美元。值得注意的是，今天的公告标志着安杜里尔公司首次参与大型传统国防项目的供应链。

“这种合同结构确保安杜里尔公司（Anduril）而不是纳税人承担大部分执行风险，从而协调各方利益，确保按时、高质量地生产潜艇，”安杜里尔公司今天在一份新闻稿中表示。

预计唐纳德·特朗普总统今天晚些时候也将在巴尔的摩县就新造船厂的落成发表讲话。

通用动力电船公司和HII旗下的纽波特纽斯造船厂联合建造弗吉尼亚级潜艇，据该公司称，Arsenal-2工厂将负责为这些潜艇生产“复杂部件和大型组件”。支持潜艇工业基础是海军的首要任务，因为业界一直难以达到海军设定的弗吉尼亚级潜艇年度生产目标。

Anduril 在新闻稿中表示：“增加这项工作的来源将使工业基地能够并行开展更多潜艇建造工作，并提高弗吉尼亚级潜艇项目的整体产能。”

安杜里尔预计，位于马里兰州巴尔的摩县大西洋贸易点的新造船厂将创造超过 3000 个直接就业岗位和超过 11000 个间接就业岗位。这座占地 200 万平方英尺的设施预计将于 2030 年开始初步运营，许可审批工作计划立即启动，一旦公司获得相应的行政许可，即可开始建设。

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Anduril 的总裁兼首席战略官克里斯·布罗斯今天告诉记者，该公司近两年来一直在与政府和海军讨论增加造船厂产能的必要性。

布罗斯说：“我们需要发展海洋工业基础，特别是潜艇工业基础，这样才能生产更多潜艇。安杜里尔的目标就是为此做出贡献。这并非要剥夺任何人的生计，而是要增加粮食供应，满足我国生产更多潜艇的需求。”

Anduril 计划先在该工厂生产基本模块，例如鱼雷发射管，然后再逐步扩展到更复杂的部件——包括舰艇的完整部分，例如船首。

Anduril公司还将与新建的Arsenal-2工厂同步，在加利福尼亚州奥兰治县一座占地16万平方英尺的新工厂开始生产潜艇零部件。Arsenal-2工厂投产后，奥兰治县的这座工厂将为“更广泛的海事制造业务”提供支持。

“位于奥兰治县的工厂使安杜里尔公司在‘阿森纳-2’项目投入运营前，拥有两年的运营先机，可以开发和验证制造方法、生产流程和质量体系，”安杜里尔公司在新闻稿中表示。“该工厂将支持弗吉尼亚级测试设备和关键海上部件（包括鱼雷发射管）的原型制作和生产，同时使安杜里尔公司能够招募和培训早期员工，使其掌握最终将在‘阿森纳-2’项目上大规模应用的系统和标准。”

海军作战部长达里尔·考德尔海军上将5月份在众议院拨款委员会作证时表示，他预计到2032年左右，工业界每年将交付两艘弗吉尼亚级潜艇。海军5月份发布的造船计划也指出，投资潜艇工业基础对于实现这些生产目标至关重要。

“海军要求将潜艇产量提高到每年至少一艘哥伦比亚级潜艇和两艘弗吉尼亚级潜艇，这仍然是工业基础的首要任务，近期重点是稳定供应链并培养所需的熟练劳动力，直到达到满负荷生产为止，”造船计划指出。

然而，根据美国政府问责局（GAO）7月发布的一份报告，弗吉尼亚级潜艇项目遭遇了诸多障碍，包括材料交付延迟和经验丰富的工人短缺。报告指出，尽管海军希望每年建造两艘弗吉尼亚级潜艇，但截至2025年6月，造船厂的实际建造速度仅为每年一艘。

美国政府问责局（GAO）的报告指出：“供应商材料交付延迟以及劳动力市场竞争导致经验丰富的工人短缺，是造成这些趋势的主要原因。海军计划通过投资数十亿美元改善供应链和提高造船工人工资等措施来提升绩效。”

一位高级政府官员告诉记者，安杜里尔的设施计划每年将为潜艇工业基地增加约 900 万小时，相当于弗吉尼亚级潜艇产量增加 15%。

一位高级政府官员今天表示：“如果能更早地拥有这些鱼雷发射管，就能加快目前正在建造的弗吉尼亚级潜艇的生产速度……这将增强潜艇工业基础的韧性和产能，绝对能够转化为弗吉​​尼亚级潜艇建造水平的提高。”