Trump unveils $6.6bn shipyard in Baltimore to be owned by defense firm Anduril

Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the opening of a new shipbuilding factory in Baltimore, Maryland. The project is valued at $6.6bn and will be owned by Anduril Industries, a defense company with strong political connections.

Trump's appearance at the former shipyard in Sparrows Point is a boost for a company whose founder, Palmer Luckey, is one of the Republican Party's major fundraisers. The Guardian reported in August that Luckey has hosted fundraisers for at least 20 Republican politicians, Trump among them, and has given $5.9m to Republican causes since 2017. Last week, defense secretary Pete Hegseth named Luckey, an outspoken supporter of autonomous warfare, as an adviser to the Pentagon's recently launched "Project Meridien", which is meant to study the future of warfare.

Funding and plans

The factory, to be called "Arsenal Two", is funded partly by $2.9bn from the US navy, with $3.7bn coming from private investment. Officials said it will build torpedo tubes and other sections of Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines. Rapid shipbuilding is a priority for the Trump administration, which has promoted a future "golden fleet".

Trump said US taxpayers would "receive a 40% stake" in the shipyard. It is unclear what he meant, or whether the government will take an equity share in the company, as it has with some other firms. Anduril said the site will not be ready to produce ship parts until 2030. The company has built smaller unmanned maritime systems but has not said how many are in service, and it has no known history in making manned submarines.

The event

Dozens of uniformed sailors from the USS Billings, a shallow water combat ship, attended. One naval specialist said he wanted to see the president but was more eager to get home after a deployment in the Caribbean. According to him, the ship had been due to return to Florida but was re-routed to the event.

Acting navy secretary Hung Cao described the plant as a "partnership between the navy and Anduril that breaks through bureaucratic red tape". He praised Anduril warmly despite its lack of submarine-building experience, and promised the sailors that the company would make systems for them. Cao also repeatedly used Trump's new term for artificial intelligence, "super intelligence".