The US has unveiled Arsenal-2, a new software-defined shipyard that will manufacture critical components for Virginia-class submarines and expand the country’s submarine industrial base.
The facility is backed by a $3.7 billion private capital investment from Anduril Industries. The US Navy has also awarded Anduril a contract worth up to $2.9 billion, with payments tied to demonstrated production outcomes.
Together, the investment and navy contract represent $6.6 billion in funding for the US submarine industrial base as the Navy seeks to increase attack submarine production.
Virginia-class submarines are built by General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding.
Meeting domestic fleet requirements and AUKUS commitments will require substantial growth across that enterprise, including new suppliers, infrastructure, workforce, and production capacity. Arsenal-2 is intended to contribute to that expansion.
Arsenal-2 will build complex components and large-scale assemblies of the Virginia-class submarine and deliver them to Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding for final assembly. 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, according to Anduril.
The scale of the production plan is reflected in the physical infrastructure and workforce required for its execution. Arsenal-2 will be built at Tradepoint Atlantic in Baltimore County, Maryland. At more than 2 million square feet, the facility will be purpose-built on a 187-acre site for high-volume, high-precision production of undersea naval capabilities.
Anduril said that permitting and site preparation will begin immediately, with construction commencing as soon as the necessary approvals are in place. Initial operations are expected to come online in 2030, with production scaling progressively thereafter as Anduril builds the workforce, supplier base, infrastructure, and manufacturing throughput required for submarine production.
Arsenal-2 will sit within the Sparrows Point complex, a site central to America's maritime heritage and well positioned for a new generation of heavy industry.
The shipyard's layout is optimized for production. 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. 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. It will connect fabrication workflows, outfitting sequences, material movement, inspection protocols, and documentation requirements in a single syste, according to the company.
Arsenal-2 is part of Anduril’s network of production facilities in the United States and allied countries. The network includes Arsenal-1 in the Columbus, Ohio, area; a maritime production facility at Quonset Point, Rhode Island; a Ghost Shark facility in Sydney, Australia; a rocket motor facility in McHenry, Mississippi; and more than 15 other production sites. Together, the facilities produce defense systems, components, and related infrastructure.
"This is an exciting announcement for Maryland, and the benefits of this investment and partnership will be felt not only in the greater Baltimore area but all across our state. Much of the future of defense technology centers on out-innovating our adversaries on autonomous and uncrewed vehicles at sea and in the air, and Maryland is already emerging as a leader in this field, thanks to the work we've done in Southern Maryland around Pax River as well as partnerships with educational institutions like the College of Southern Maryland. I thank Anduril for recognizing this leadership and for seizing this opportunity to create good jobs in our state and advance our national security," Congressman Steny H. Hoyer, said.