Anduril Wins $2.9B Navy Contract, Bets $3.7B on Maryland Submarine Shipyard

Defense tech upstart Anduril has landed an up-to-$2.9 billion U.S. Navy contract to boost submarine production, while simultaneously committing $3.7 billion of its own capital to build a brand-new shipyard at Sparrows Point outside Baltimore. The 2-million-square-foot facility is expected to begin operations in 2030 and generate roughly 3,100 jobs — a major bet that a Silicon Valley-style defense company can reshape America's legacy shipbuilding industrial base.

The Sparrows Point shipyard will focus on components for the Virginia-class submarine, the Navy's workhorse fast-attack vessel currently built exclusively by General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries. Anduril isn't displacing those giants — General Dynamics alone won a $76.6 billion Navy submarine award this summer — but is positioning itself as a critical supplier in the broader supply chain. A smaller, 160,000-square-foot facility in Orange County, California will handle discrete parts like torpedo tubes. Anduril President Chris Brose framed the play as filling a production gap the existing industrial base simply can't close, arguing the new facility offers a rare chance to rethink how a shipyard is designed and operated from scratch.

The deal arrives at a politically charged moment for Anduril. Just days before the contract announcement, co-founder Palmer Luckey was named to Project Meridian, a Pentagon initiative to identify and develop capabilities for future U.S. conflicts. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk are also part of the project, deepening the entanglement between Trump-aligned defense tech figures and federal procurement. Marc Andreessen — whose firm Andreessen Horowitz is a major Anduril backer — was added to the Pentagon's defense policy board earlier this summer, alongside Thiel Capital's Blake Masters. The clustering of investors, founders, and advisors across both government roles and active contract competitions has drawn scrutiny over conflicts of interest in the fast-expanding defense tech sector.

Anduril, best known for autonomous drones and unmanned maritime craft, is using the Sparrows Point project to push into conventional shipbuilding — a significant strategic expansion. Brose signaled ambitions beyond component supply, suggesting the company hopes to eventually take on ever-larger sections of submarines as its capabilities scale. The move marks one of the most concrete examples yet of a new-generation defense contractor challenging the entrenched duopoly that has dominated U.S. submarine construction for decades.