Trump Announces $6.6 Billion Submarine Yard at Baltimore’s Sparrows Point

President Donald Trump went to Sparrows Point on Tuesday to announce Arsenal-2, an Anduril Industries shipyard on the former Bethlehem Steel site that will build components for the Navy’s Virginia-class attack submarines.

Anduril is putting $3.7 billion of private capital into the plant. The Navy awarded the company a contract of up to $2.9 billion to make submarine parts, including torpedo tubes and doors. Reuters put the combined commitment at up to $6.6 billion. The Maryland Department of Commerce called it the largest single private investment in the state in more than a decade.

The yard will sit at Tradepoint Atlantic in Baltimore County, on about 187 acres, in a building of more than 2 million square feet. Anduril expects to start hiring in 2029 and begin initial operations in 2030. The state said the project will create more than 3,100 permanent jobs and support more than 14,000 jobs in all, with more than $2 billion in annual economic output and about $312 million a year in wages. Maryland and Baltimore County have pledged roughly $481 million in public support. County incentives still need a council vote.

Parts will ship to Huntington Ingalls in Newport News, Virginia, and General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, for final assembly. Anduril said it will start with smaller components and later move into larger sections, including bows and sterns. The company is also building a California plant for Virginia-class parts. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Anduril chief executive Brian Schimpf, and Navy officials were on the program at 1660 Shipyard Road.

Sparrows Point built ships in World War II and later became a steel mill. Tradepoint Atlantic bought the property in 2014 and turned much of it into a logistics hub. Arsenal-2 puts manufacturing back on the waterfront.

Democratic Gov. Wes Moore did not attend. He told reporters the White House would not let him speak, even though his office had worked on the deal for more than a year. “If the president of the United States wants to bring the circus in town and tell me that I’m not allowed to speak, despite the fact 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 said. A White House official did not dispute that Moore was invited as a guest, not a speaker, and said Trump had “graciously” invited him. The official called it unfortunate that the governor was “making a multi-billion dollar announcement about himself by throwing a tantrum over a federal initiative that will bring sorely needed jobs back to his state thanks to President Trump.”