Anduril Dives Into Submarine Construction With New Baltimore Plant

Published Oct 6, 2026 1:41 PM EDT

As part of its overall effort to boost America’s flagging shipbuilding capacity , the Trump administration on Tuesday announced that Anduril is building a new two-million-square-foot facility in Baltimore designed to help speed up the production of Virginia class nuclear-powered attack submarines . The plant, dubbed Arsenal-2, will eventually produce components like torpedo tubes and spherical air flasks, which will then be sent to the two shipyards that build nuclear submarines, General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding. Anduril’s plan to build complex submarine components is a huge leap for a company with a shipbuilding portfolio consisting of a limited number of smaller craft .

The submarine component plant announcement was made as the Navy is struggling to keep up with its goal of producing two of these boats per year amid a wider issue of construction and delivery delays across the service . However, it will be years before the first Anduril-produced components are placed on a submarine, with no specific timelines for that effort yet established, an industry official told us. We will discuss that in greater detail later in this story.

A Virginia class submarine under construction. (HII) HII

“Today’s $6.6 billion investment represents the president’s commitment to restoring American maritime dominance by constructing new vessels in communities like Baltimore and across the country,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told a group of reporters, including from TWZ , at a Tuesday morning press conference.

Those funds include a $3.7 billion investment from Anduril to build and staff the new facility and a contract worth up to $2.9 billion awarded to Anduril by the Navy to produce the components.

“The Virginia class submarine program is one of the most critical warfighting capabilities that our nation has that guarantees deterrence every single day,” Anduril President and Chief Strategy Officer Chris Brose stated. “It is also a program that has been challenged in terms of the ability to meet the Navy’s requirements. So we’re, as a nation, not necessarily where we need to be, and that’s not because of our shipyard workers.”

The Navy currently has 26 Virginia class boats, with two more expected to be commissioned next spring, a senior administration official told reporters on Tuesday. Another 31 vessels are still needed to meet the Navy’s overall plan to have 59 Virginia class boats .

The USS Idaho (SSN 799) pulls into Submarine Base New London in Groton, Conn. for the first time on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. When commissioned, it became the 26th Virginia class attack submarine and fifth U.S. Navy ship to be named for the Gem State. (U.S. Navy Photo by John Narewski) John Narewski

However, while the Navy has been buying them at a rate of two per year from Fiscal Year 2011 through Fiscal Year 2024, “the actual Virginia class production rate has never reached 2.0 boats per year, and since 2022 has been limited by shipyard and supplier firm workforce and supply chain challenges to about 1.1 to 1.2 boats per year, resulting in a growing backlog of boats procured but not yet built,” according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report published in January . “Key drivers of the drop in production include workforce challenges, first-time quality, material and supplier delays, and lead ship issues associated with the Virginia Payload Module [VPM] variant. The Navy is working closely with the shipbuilders to drive improvement throughout the Virginia enterprise.”

The VPM is an 84-foot hull extension that contains four additional large vertical tubes designed to launch Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles , Intermediate-Range Conventional Prompt Strike (IRCPS) hypersonic missiles , and other payloads. You can read more about the Navy’s VPM plans in our story here .

A briefing slide with details about the Virginia Payload Module (VPM) that will be added to the Block V Virginia class submarines. USN

Adding to the strain on production and delivery, Australia is set to get one new-build Virginia class boat and two from the U.S. Navy’s fleet under the 2021 trilateral AUKUS nuclear submarine acquisition deal with the United States and the United Kingdom.

In May, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle told Congress that the service would meet its two-boat-a-year delivery rate by 2032.

During Tuesday’s press conference, officials laid out claims that the new Anduril plant will address several of the issues that have slowed down the construction and delivery of these submarines.

“If you look at this in terms of capacity, the potential based on the area and what Anduril plans to do is to add about 9 million hours of labor a year at this facility,” stated a senior administration official, who, like others on Tuesday spoke on condition of anonymity. “That would be the equivalent of about a 15% increase, and so that would be directly translatable to Virginia class submarine production. So having those torpedo tubes earlier would let us move production of current Virginia submarines under construction faster.”

Adm. Frank Caldwell, Jr., director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, examines a torpedo tube aboard the Virginia class fast attack submarine USS Illinois (SSN 786) during Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2022. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Alfred Coffield/Released) Petty Officer 1st Class Alfred Coffield

In addition, Anduril plans to draw on a huge potential workforce to staff the plant.

“If you basically draw like a one-hour radius around the Baltimore County area, there are millions and millions of people who could potentially contribute and work at this shipyard, and that is a huge selling point for us,” an industry official suggested.

The greater Baltimore area. (Google Earth)

Beyond producing components like torpedo tubes, Anduril aspires to eventually build “full ship sections, bows, sterns, etc.” at Arsenal-2, the industry official added.

Anduril said Arsenal-2 will be “purpose-built” for the “high-volume, high-precision production of undersea naval capabilities.”

“The shipyard’s layout is optimized for production,” the company stated in a media release. “Reduced distances between fabrication, assembly, testing, and integration areas eliminate the staging bottlenecks that slow conventional yards.”

“A functional 1,200-foot graving dock and multimodal road and rail access support large-scale component movement,” Anduril added. “High-bay assembly halls, adjacent fabrication areas, and reconfigurable production lines allow the yard to shift rapidly as Navy requirements evolve.”

ArsenalOS , Anduril’s industrial software platform, “will provide the digital backbone for the yard and its production systems,” the company further pointed out. “It will connect fabrication workflows, outfitting sequences, material movement, inspection protocols, and documentation requirements in a single system, giving workers and managers real-time visibility into the state of production. Digital work instructions, embedded quality controls, modern sensing, and automation will support the expertise of welders, pipefitters, electricians, shipfitters, inspectors, and other skilled trades.”

Anduril claims the project “will create 3,100 direct jobs and support more than 11,000 indirect jobs. The site will drive $2 billion in annual economic output, including an estimated $312 million in wages each year.”

Before Arsenal-2 is up and running, Anduril said it plans to “manufacture critical Virginia class submarine components at a new 160,000-square-foot facility in Orange County, California, purpose-built to support key submarine construction processes and SUBSAFE-qualified production qualification [efforts].”

The Orange County facility will give Anduril “a two-year operational head start to develop and validate manufacturing methods, production workflows, and quality systems before Arsenal-2 comes online,” the company noted. “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. Once Arsenal-2 comes online, the Orange County facility will continue supporting broader maritime manufacturing efforts across Anduril’s industrial network.”

As we noted earlier in this piece, it will be years before anything produced by Anduril winds up on a sub. In addition to recruiting and training a workforce to build the components and ensuring the production system can meet goals, the parts then have to be tested to ensure they are safe enough to place on boats.

The industry official told TWZ that there is no schedule yet for when that will happen.

“We are starting this work now,” the industry official said. “We’re going to be working quickly. There’s a lot we’re going to have to do to prove the ability to produce the initial components – the torpedo tubes. We’re going to have to work with our partners in industry and partners in government on the certification. So it’s really not possible to put a time stamp on it as much as I’d like to.”

“I think our goal, and I know this is shared by the administration, is to go as fast as possible while keeping the bar of safety as high as it needs to be, and try to get these systems certified so that they go into the production of boats… and solve the critical limiting factor currently in our supply chain, and help our industry partners produce more submarines.”

Arsenal-2 follows the development of Anduril’s Arsenal-1 plant in Ohio, first announced two years ago . That five-million-square-foot facility, once fully up and running, will be able to “produce tens of thousands of autonomous weapons systems addressing the urgent needs of the United States and our allies,” the company said at the time.

Anduril’s Arsenal-1 plant in Ohio. (Anduril)

Arsenal-1, however, remains a work in progress, with more construction work yet to be done. Still, Anduril’s first product from that plant, the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) known as the YFQ-44A Fury , rolled off the assembly line there in July. That milestone met the company’s initial production schedule announced in January 2025, according to JobsOhio , the state’s business development arm.

A U.S. Air Force YFQ-44A Fury aircraft, assigned to the Collaborative Combat Aircraft Experimental Operation Unit, takes off for a mission flight during an Agile Combat Employment exercise at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, July 21, 2026. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Kristal Munguia) Staff Sgt. Kristal Munguia

Anduril, which also produces systems like the Ghost Shark extra-large autonomous undersea vehicle (in partnership with Australia), the Roadrunner reusable missile-like air vehicle, the Iris family of passive infrared sensors, and a wide range of other items, is playing a growing role in the Trump administration’s weapons development efforts.

Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, who made a name for himself and his fortune in the virtual reality space with Meta, will help lead a new program dubbed Project Meridian. The goal, according to a Pentagon memo , is to “map the trajectory of future warfare, identify critical capability gaps, and propose actionable solutions in furtherance of the identified goals in the 2026 National Security Science and Technology Strategy .”

The Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer, Emil Michael, has been directed to set up this project. SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Newt Gingrich are other key members.

A screen capture from last month’s livestream of Secretary Hegseth’s speech announcing new plans for autonomous warfare capabilities. From left to right, Palmer Luckey, Newt Gingrich, and Elon Musk. U.S. Military capture

From our story about Project Meridian and the Pentagon’s overall effort to boost its autonomous warfare capabilities:

“The inclusion of Musk and Luckey does raise ethical questions, as they both lead companies with major U.S. government contracts already, and which could be in line to see more opportunities based on Project Meridian’s findings. What guardrails might be put in place to prevent conflicts of interest is unclear.”

Regardless of any such concerns, today’s shipyard announcement is a clear indication that the Trump administration and the Pentagon see Anduril as a major player across its weapons manufacturing industrial base. It’s also a reminder of just how challenging it is to actually expand America’s ability to build fighting vessels.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

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发布于美国东部时间2026年10月6日下午1:41

作为提升美国日益疲软的造船能力的整体举措之一，特朗普政府周二宣布，安杜里尔公司将在巴尔的摩建造一座占地200万平方英尺的新工厂，旨在加快弗吉尼亚级核动力攻击潜艇的生产。这座名为“阿森纳-2”的工厂最终将生产鱼雷发射管和球形气瓶等部件，这些部件随后将被送往建造核潜艇的两家船厂：通用动力电船公司和亨廷顿英格尔斯工业公司旗下的纽波特纽斯造船厂。对于一家造船业务主要集中于少量小型舰艇的公司而言，安杜里尔公司计划建造复杂的潜艇部件无疑是一次巨大的飞跃。

海军宣布建立潜艇部件工厂之际，正值海军面临建造和交付普遍延误的问题，难以实现每年生产两艘潜艇的目标。然而，一位业内人士告诉我们，安杜里尔公司生产的首批部件距离安装到潜艇上还需要数年时间，目前尚未确定具体时间表。我们将在本文稍后部分对此进行更详细的讨论。

一艘正在建造中的弗吉尼亚级潜艇。(HII) HII

白宫发言人安娜·凯利在周二上午的新闻发布会上告诉包括 TWZ 记者在内的一群记者：“今天这 66 亿美元的投资代表了总统致力于通过在巴尔的摩等社区和全国各地建造新舰艇来恢复美国海上霸权的承诺。”

这些资金包括 Anduril 公司投资 37 亿美元用于建设和配备新设施，以及海军授予 Anduril 公司价值高达 29 亿美元的合同用于生产零部件。

“弗吉尼亚级潜艇项目是我们国家最重要的作战能力之一，它每天都在保障威慑力，”安杜里尔公司总裁兼首席战略官克里斯·布罗斯表示。“但该项目在满足海军要求方面也面临着挑战。因此，作为一个国家，我们尚未达到应有的水平，但这并非我们造船厂工人的错。”

海军目前拥有26艘弗吉尼亚级潜艇，一位高级政府官员周二告诉记者，预计明年春天还将有两艘服役。海军仍需再建造31艘才能达到其拥有59艘弗吉尼亚级潜艇的总体计划。

2025年12月15日星期一，美国海军“爱达荷”号（SSN 799）核潜艇首次驶入位于康涅狄格州格罗顿的新伦敦潜艇基地。该潜艇服役后，成为第26艘弗吉尼亚级攻击型核潜艇，也是第五艘以“宝石之州”（康涅狄格州的别称）命名的美国海军舰艇。（美国海军照片，摄影：约翰·纳雷夫斯基）

然而，尽管海军从2011财年至2024财年一直以每年两艘的速度采购弗吉尼亚级护卫舰，但根据国会研究服务处（CRS）1月份发布的一份报告，“弗吉尼亚级护卫舰的实际生产速度从未达到每年2艘，自2022年以来，由于造船厂和供应商的劳动力和供应链挑战，生产速度被限制在每年约1.1至1.2艘，导致已采购但尚未建造的舰艇积压日益严重。”报告还指出，“导致产量下降的主要原因包括劳动力挑战、首件质量问题、材料和供应商延误，以及与弗吉尼亚有效载荷模块（VPM）相关的首舰问题。海军正与造船厂密切合作，以推动整个弗吉尼亚级护卫舰项目的改进。”

VPM（垂直推进系统）是一个84英尺长的船体延伸部分，包含四个额外的垂直发射管，用于发射“战斧”陆攻巡航导弹、中程常规快速打击（IRCPS）高超音速导弹和其他有效载荷。您可以在我们的报道中了解更多关于海军VPM计划的信息（点击此处）。

一份简报幻灯片，详细介绍了将加装到第五批次弗吉尼亚级潜艇上的弗吉尼亚有效载荷模块（VPM）。美国海军

雪上加霜的是，根据 2021 年澳大利亚与美国和英国签署的三方 AUKUS 核潜艇采购协议，澳大利亚将获得一艘新建的弗吉尼亚级潜艇和两艘来自美国海军舰队的潜艇，这三方协议也加剧了生产和交付的压力。

今年 5 月，海军作战部长达里尔·考德尔海军上将向国会表示，海军将在 2032 年前实现每年两艘舰艇的交付速度。

在周二的新闻发布会上，官员们声称，新的安杜里尔工厂将解决几个拖慢这些潜艇建造和交付速度的问题。

一位不愿透露姓名的高级政府官员表示：“从产能角度来看，根据该地区的面积和安杜里尔公司的计划，该设施每年可增加约900万工时。这相当于增幅约15%，可以直接转化为弗吉​​尼亚级潜艇的生产。因此，提前安装鱼雷发射管将使我们能够加快目前正在建造的弗吉尼亚级潜艇的生产速度。”

海军核动力推进项目主任弗兰克·考德威尔海军上将（小弗兰克·考德威尔）在2022年冰上演习（ICEX 2022）期间，在弗吉尼亚级快速攻击潜艇“伊利诺伊”号（SSN 786）上检查鱼雷发射管。（美国海军一级大众传播专家阿尔弗雷德·科菲尔德拍摄/发布）一级军士长阿尔弗雷德·科菲尔德

此外，安杜里尔计划利用庞大的潜在劳动力来为工厂配备人员。

一位业内人士表示：“如果以巴尔的摩县为中心，划定一个一小时车程的半径范围，就会发现有数百万人有可能为这家造船厂做出贡献并在此工作，这对我们来说是一个巨大的卖点。”

大巴尔的摩地区。（谷歌地球）

这位业内人士补充说，除了生产鱼雷发射管等部件外，安杜里尔还希望最终在 Arsenal-2 建造“完整的舰体部分、船首、船尾等”。

安杜里尔表示，Arsenal-2 将“专门建造”用于“大规模、高精度地生产水下海军能力”。

该公司在一份新闻稿中表示：“船厂的布局针对生产进行了优化。缩短了制造、组装、测试和集成区域之间的距离，消除了传统船厂常见的工期瓶颈，从而降低了生产效率。”

安杜里尔补充道：“1200英尺长的功能性干船坞以及多式联运的公路和铁路交通网络，为大规模部件运输提供了支持。高架装配车间、相邻的制造区域以及可重新配置的生产线，使得船厂能够随着海军需求的演变而快速调整。”

Anduril公司进一步指出，其工业软件平台ArsenalOS“将为船厂及其生产系统提供数字化骨干网络”。“它将把制造流程、舾装顺序、物料移动、检验规程和文档要求整合到一个系统中，使工人和管理人员能够实时了解生产状态。数字化作业指导书、嵌入式质量控制、现代传感技术和自动化将为焊工、管道工、电工、船舶装配工、检验员和其他技术工人提供专业支持。”

Anduril 声称该项目“将创造 3100 个直接就业岗位，并间接带动超过 11000 个就业岗位。该项目每年将带来 20 亿美元的经济产出，其中包括预计每年 3.12 亿美元的工资收入。”

在 Arsenal-2 投入运营之前，Anduril 表示计划“在加利福尼亚州奥兰治县新建的 160,000 平方英尺的工厂生产弗吉尼亚级潜艇的关键部件，该工厂是专门为支持关键的潜艇建造流程和 SUBSAFE 认证的生产资格认证工作而建造的”。

安杜里尔公司指出，位于奥兰治县的这座工厂将使公司“在阿森纳-2号舰艇投产前，拥有两年的运营先机，用于开发和验证制造方法、生产流程和质量体系”。“它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号舰艇上推广的系统和标准。阿森纳-2号舰艇投产后，奥兰治县工厂将继续支持安杜里尔公司整个工业网络中更广泛的海上制造工作。”

正如我们在本文前面提到的，安杜里尔公司生产的任何产品要最终安装到潜艇上，还需要数年时间。除了招募和培训工人来制造部件，并确保生产系统能够达到目标之外，这些部件还必须经过测试，以确保它们足够安全，可以安装在潜艇上。

业内人士告诉TWZ，目前还没有具体的实施时间表。

“我们现在就开始这项工作，”这位业内人士表示。“我们会加快速度。为了证明我们有能力生产初始部件——鱼雷发射管，我们还有很多工作要做。我们需要与业内合作伙伴和政府合作伙伴共同完成认证。所以，尽管我很想给出一个具体的时间表，但现在真的很难。”

“我认为我们的目标，而且我知道这也是政府的共同目标，就是在保持必要的安全标准的前提下，尽可能快地推进，努力让这些系统获得认证，以便它们能够投入到潜艇的生产中……解决我们供应链中目前的关键限制因素，并帮助我们的行业合作伙伴生产更多的潜艇。”

Arsenal-2工厂是继安杜里尔公司位于俄亥俄州的Arsenal-1工厂之后开发的，后者于两年前首次公布。该公司当时表示，这座占地500万平方英尺的工厂一旦全面投产，将能够“生产数万套自主武器系统，以满足美国及其盟友的迫切需求”。

安杜里尔公司位于俄亥俄州的Arsenal-1工厂。（安杜里尔公司）

然而，Arsenal-1工厂仍在建设中，还有许多建设工作尚未完成。尽管如此，Anduril公司在该工厂生产的首款产品——美国空军的协同作战飞机（CCA），即YFQ-44A“狂怒”战斗机，已于7月下线。据俄亥俄州商业发展机构JobsOhio称，这一里程碑式的成就符合该公司于2025年1月公布的初始生产计划。

2026年7月21日，一架隶属于美国空军协同作战飞机实验作战部队的YFQ-44A“狂怒”战斗机在内华达州克里奇空军基地参加敏捷作战部署演习期间起飞执行任务飞行。（美国空军照片，由参谋军士克里斯塔尔·蒙吉亚拍摄）

Anduril 公司还生产诸如 Ghost Shark 超大型自主水下航行器（与澳大利亚合作）、Roadrunner 可重复使用导弹状飞行器、Iris 系列被动红外传感器以及其他各种产品，该公司在特朗普政府的武器研发工作中扮演着越来越重要的角色。

上个月，国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯宣布，安杜里尔公司联合创始人帕尔默·拉基将协助领导一项名为“子午线计划”（Project Meridian）的新项目。拉基凭借虚拟现实公司Meta在虚拟现实领域声名鹊起，并积累了巨额财富。根据五角大楼的一份备忘录，该计划的目标是“描绘未来战争的发展轨迹，识别关键能力差距，并提出切实可行的解决方案，以推进2026年国家安全科技战略中确定的目标”。

五角大楼首席技术官埃米尔·迈克尔已奉命筹建该项目。SpaceX创始人埃隆·马斯克和纽特·金里奇也是主要成员。

这是上个月国防部长赫格塞斯宣布自主作战能力新计划的直播演讲的屏幕截图。从左至右依次为：帕尔默·勒基、纽特·金里奇和埃隆·马斯克。美国军方截图

根据我们关于“子午线计划”以及五角大楼提升其自主作战能力的整体努力的报道：

“马斯克和拉基的参与确实引发了伦理问题，因为他们各自领导的公司都已与美国政府签订了重大合同，而且根据‘子午线计划’的调查结果，他们的公司可能会获得更多机会。目前尚不清楚将采取哪些保障措施来防止利益冲突。”

无论存在何种担忧，今天船厂的公告清楚地表明，特朗普政府和五角大楼将安杜里尔视为其武器制造工业基地中的重要参与者。这也提醒人们，真正扩大美国建造作战舰艇的能力是多么具有挑战性。

联系作者：howard@twz.com

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