On the waterfront at Sparrows Point, Maryland, where Bethlehem Steel once ran the largest steel mill in the world, more than 3,100 people are set to go to work making parts for the Navy’s submarines. The new yard is called Arsenal-2, and it is being built because the Navy cannot get submarines as fast as it needs them.
Story Highlights
- President Trump launched construction of Arsenal-2 at Sparrows Point on Tuesday, October 6.
- The yard will make torpedo tubes and large submarine sections, not finished boats.
- Anduril Industries, the defense company building it, is putting in $3.7 billion of its own money.
- Work at the yard is expected to begin in 2030. Maryland’s governor did not attend the launch.
Steel Country Gets A New Job
Sparrows Point sits on the water in Baltimore County, just outside the city. For about a century the name meant steel. Steel made there went into the Golden Gate Bridge, and its shipyard sent vessels to sea for World War II. Then the mill shut down, and the land became Tradepoint Atlantic, a hub of warehouses, rail lines and docks.
Arsenal-2 will cover 187 acres of that land, with more than 2 million square feet of work space under roof. Maryland officials expect more than 3,100 direct jobs there, about $312 million a year in wages and $2 billion a year in economic activity for the state. Thousands more jobs are expected at suppliers and other businesses that serve the yard.
American taxpayers are getting 40% of the new submarine shipyard going up in Baltimore. Trump announced it at Sparrows Point.
It's a $6.6 billion project. Right now this country builds about 1.3 attack subs a year. The Navy wants two. China builds more than half the world's…
— PetroWasHere (@petrowashere) October 7, 2026
“Sparrows Point helped build the fleet that won World War II,” said Brian Schimpf, the chief executive of Anduril. “That legacy doesn’t need to stay in the past.”
What Will Be Made There
The yard will not launch whole submarines. It will make parts and sections for Virginia-class boats, the Navy’s nuclear-powered attack submarines, which are built to hunt enemy ships and other subs. The first product is torpedo tubes. Larger pieces of the hull, called modules, come later.
Those pieces will be shipped to the two yards that put the boats together, General Dynamics Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding. At full strength, Arsenal-2 is expected to add about 9 million hours of labor a year. That is 15 percent more than the submarine program has now.
Anduril Industries is a California defense technology company founded by Palmer Luckey. It is spending $3.7 billion of private money on the land, buildings and machines. Separately, the Navy gave the company a contract worth up to $2.9 billion for the parts it will deliver, with payment tied to what the yard turns out. The two figures add up to $6.6 billion.
Trump Opens The Project
Trump traveled to the site to start the work himself. He called Arsenal-2 the largest new shipyard built in the United States since World War II. “You’ll build the next generation of American submarines, including autonomous subs,” he told the crowd. An autonomous sub is one that runs with no crew aboard. He said the Navy’s future purchases from the yard could reach $21 billion.
The Governor Stayed Away
Gov. Wes Moore, the Democrat who leads Maryland, was not there. His administration spent about two years in talks that helped bring the project to the state. Moore said he had been on the program and was then told he could not speak, so he stayed away. “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.
The White House said he had been invited as a guest. “It’s unfortunate that the Governor is now 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,” a White House official said. In a statement, Moore said “thousands of Marylanders will have new pathways to work, wages, and wealth.” The state and Baltimore County have agreed to match up to 13 percent of Anduril’s investment through incentive programs, and some of that money still needs votes from state and county lawmakers.
Why The Navy Needs It
The Navy wants two Virginia-class submarines a year. It has not been getting them. A Naval Postgraduate School analysis put output at about 60 percent of the plan in recent years. Navy and congressional reports point to the same causes: too few skilled workers, too few suppliers and parts that arrive late.
Arsenal-2 is aimed at that weak spot. The two assembly yards can only finish a boat as fast as the sections reach them. A third large site turning out tubes and modules gives them more to work with.
The schedule is long. Permits and site preparation come first, then construction. Operations are expected to begin in 2030 and grow from there. No date has been announced for the first delivery of parts or for the first submarine built with them.
For the families around Sparrows Point, the payoff is skilled, steady work where the old mill stood. For the country, it is a fleet that gets its boats sooner.
Sources:
breitbart.com, commerce.maryland.gov, marylandmatters.org, navalnews.com, defensescoop.com, thedailyrecord.com