President Donald Trump pledged $2.9 billion in U.S. Navy support Tuesday for Anduril Industries’ submarine manufacturing shipyard at Sparrows Point, adding federal backing to a $3.7 billion private investment that promises to return large-scale shipbuilding to the former Bethlehem Steel site.

Trump also promised $21 billion in future purchases once the Baltimore County facility is operating, outlining a federal role extending beyond development of the shipyard to buying its output.

“What we’re doing this afternoon is part of a dramatic turnaround for [the] American defense industrial base,” Trump said at the site of the proposed shipyard at Tradepoint Atlantic, which he described as a “nice piece of real estate” after flying over the sprawling property.

The announcement puts Sparrows Point at the center of an effort to overcome submarine production delays while promising more than 3,100 permanent jobs. Maryland and Baltimore County are considering additional public support that could reach roughly $481 million, with new appropriations requiring legislative approval.

Known as Arsenal-2, the proposed 2 million-square-foot facility would begin producing submarine components before moving into larger sections for Virginia-class attack submarines. Anduril has not specified when the shipyard would reach full operation.

Trump and other defense officials touted the new facility as a symbol of American military superiority, appealing directly to more than a hundred Navy sailors and midshipmen in the audience.

“Now, with the men and women of Anduril, the workers of Maryland and the warriors of the U.S. Navy — which is just a special, special group — this place will roar with the sound of high-tech manufacturing, building ships and submarines that will be feared by our enemies all over the world,” Trump said.

Building ‘the golden fleet’

Vice Admiral Robert Gaucher, the Navy’s director of submarine programs, said the country is reckoning with the loss of industrial capacity. Tuesday marked the start of rebuilding it.

The planned Arsenal-2 facility will tackle bottlenecks in production, with the potential to add up to 9 million production hours per year into the submarine supply chain — a 15% surge in total capacity, Gaucher said.

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said the Navy’s mandate from President Donald Trump is clear: to build the “golden fleet” — a maritime force “designed to dominate the seas, protect overwhelming power, and guarantee maritime supremacy for the next century.”

The Navy’s production problems are well documented. A February 2025 Government Accountability Office report found that workforce and infrastructure challenges had prevented shipbuilders from meeting Navy goals. It also found that the Defense Department had not fully determined the effectiveness of billions of dollars invested in the shipbuilding industrial base.

“We as a nation have been struggling to produce enough of these submarines over the past 10 to 20 years,” Christian Brose, Anduril’s president and chief strategy officer, said during a pre-event briefing. “Really what this is is a massive investment to create additional production capacity to meet the requirements the United States Navy and our allies have.”

Brian Schimpf, Anduril’s CEO, said conversations with the Navy began more than two years ago with a question: Could the California-based defense technology company help build submarines?

Initially, the answer was no. Even Anduril’s most advanced systems differed in complexity from Virginia-class submarines, Schimpf said. But the company kept examining the problem, and a need for additional facilities to manufacture submarine components emerged.

“America already knows how to build the best submarines in the world,” Schimpf said. “The challenge now is to build the industrial depth required to produce more of them and sustain that advantage for decades.”

Producing submarine modules

The work would begin by building components like torpedo tubes. Then it would grow more complex as the facility develops.

“The focus will be starting with the production of components, things like torpedo tubes, moving up to modules and eventually when the yard is fully realized, contributing what’s referred to as super modules,” Brose said.

Modules are prefabricated submarine sections. Super modules combine multiple sections into larger building blocks that can be transported to another shipyard for final assembly.

General Dynamic Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding will take on final module outfitting, nuclear reactor integration, assembly, testing and delivery, Gaucher said.

The state projects more than $2 billion in annual economic output from Anduril’s investment, including an estimated $312 million in annual wages. Those figures represent anticipated benefits, rather than jobs or spending already delivered.

Moore doesn’t show

Gov. Wes Moore was expected to join Trump on Tuesday to tout the facility. Instead, Moore declined to attend after being told he wouldn’t be able to speak.

“If the President of the United States wants to bring the circus into town and tell me I’m not allowed to speak, when we were the ones that helped bring the deal, then I will let the circus be conducted while I go back to the work of the people of Maryland,” Moore told reporters after Tuesday’s debate.

The White House disputed that characterization, saying Trump had invited Moore to attend the event as a guest but accusing the governor of “throwing a tantrum” over an announcement that would bring jobs to Maryland.

The dispute reflects a broader fight over who gets credit for bringing the massive investment and thousands of jobs to Maryland. Trump and his administration have portrayed the Anduril project as part of the president’s push to revive American manufacturing, while Moore has promoted the project as an economic-development victory for Maryland and its workers.

A spokesperson for Moore did not directly address whether the governor was barred from attending, saying instead that Moore “has always said he will work with anyone when it comes to delivering for Marylanders but bow to no one when it comes to standing up for them.”

“The Governor is proud to welcome Anduril to Baltimore County and the thousands of permanent jobs this investment is bringing to our state,” the spokesperson said.

The White House said Moore had been invited to attend as a guest.

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