Anduril moves into submarine manufacturing with a $2.9 billion Navy deal as its founder gains Pentagon influence | Daily Reports Online
- Anduril wins a Navy contract worth up to $2.9 billion for submarines
- Palmer Luckey joined Project Meridian days before Anduril received its Navy contract
- Anduril will invest $3.7 billion of its own money in the shipyard
Anduril has secured a US Navy agreement worth as much as $2.9 billion, linking the defense technology company to submarine manufacturing.
The award arrives shortly after co-founder Palmer Luckey joined a Pentagon initiative examining technologies intended for future military operations.
Project Meridian also includes Elon Musk and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, while SpaceX and Anduril both work with the federal government.
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New capacity for submarine production
Anduril plans to spend $3.7 billion developing a manufacturing complex at Tradepoint Atlantic in Baltimore County, Maryland.
The proposed Arsenal-2 site will cover 187 acres and more than two million square feet when construction and expansion are complete.
Operations are expected to begin in 2030, with the workforce and manufacturing capabilities increasing as additional production systems become operational.
The facility is intended to manufacture Virginia-class submarine components before sending completed sections to established shipbuilders for final assembly.
When the facility reaches full capacity, it could provide approximately 9 million labor hours annually and over 3,000 jobs.
“This is about putting more food on the table and being able to meet the requirements that our country has to produce more submarines,” said Anduril President and Chief Strategy Officer Chris Brose in a press briefing.
General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries currently build the vessels, making Anduril a new supplier within their production network.
Anduril has also begun developing a 160,000-square-foot facility in California for comparatively straightforward components needed by submarine manufacturers.
Those products include torpedo tubes, which officials have described as an important constraint affecting progress on some submarines already under construction.
Project Meridian and possible conflict of interest
There have been questions about Luckey’s role in Project Meridian because the project’s work overlaps with technologies that Anduril develops and supplies to the federal government.
However, the Pentagon has rejected concerns that Luckey’s government position could create an improper connection with Anduril’s Navy award.
“There’s really nothing to see here,” said Emil Michael, chief technology officer at the Pentagon.
Michael said Meridian’s combination of academics, military personnel and industry leaders provides the expertise needed to examine future warfare capabilities.
The Navy agreement also expands Anduril’s role beyond autonomous aircraft and software into manufacturing components for conventionally crewed submarines.
“Our goal here is to be a critical, and hopefully, over time, much larger and growing part of the supply chain,” said Chris Brose, Anduril president and chief strategy officer.
President Donald Trump visited the planned Maryland facility and discussed autonomous submarines while describing possible future developments in naval warfare.
“I love the idea of the autonomous sub,” Trump said. “It just makes sense because I wouldn’t — I’m not sure that I would have the courage to go into submarines too much…”
The company now faces the practical challenge of developing the facility, recruiting workers, establishing suppliers and meeting submarine construction standards.
Via CNBC
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