Anduril founder hosted fundraisers for 20 GOP politicians
Trump on Tuesday announced a $6.6 billion shipbuilding factory in Baltimore, partly funded by the U.S. government but owned by Anduril Industries, a defense company founded by Republican donor Palmer Luckey.
The plant, to be called “Arsenal Two,” will be built at a currently unused shipyard at Sparrows Point, Maryland. The Navy will provide $2.9 billion and private investors $3.7 billion, according to the Guardian. Officials said the factory will produce torpedo tubes and other sections of Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines.
Anduril said the operation will not be ready to manufacture ship parts until 2030. While the company has produced smaller unmanned maritime systems, it will not say how many have been deployed, the Guardian reported. Anduril has never played a known role in the highly specialized manufacture of manned submarines.
Rapid ship construction has been a recurring theme of the Trump administration, which has promoted a future “golden fleet.” At Tuesday’s event in Maryland, Trump called Luckey “a friend of mine” and “a brilliant guy.” Luckey was not present at the event.
The Guardian reported in August that Luckey has hosted campaign fundraisers for at least 20 Republican politicians, including Trump, and has given $5.9 million to Republican causes since 2017.
Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth named Luckey, an outspoken proponent of autonomous warfare, as an adviser to the Pentagon’s recently launched “Project Meridien,” which is tasked to study the future of warfare.
Trump said U.S. taxpayers would “receive a 40% stake” in the shipyard. The Guardian reported that the meaning of that statement was unclear, including whether the U.S. government is taking an equity share in the company, as it has in some other firms.
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao called the plant “a partnership between the navy and Anduril that breaks through bureaucratic red tape” and praised the company in spite of its lack of submarine-building history. “Anduril will be making these systems for you!” Cao told sailors assembled at the event.
Cao repeatedly embraced Trump’s preferred term for artificial intelligence, calling it “super intelligence.” In a warning to adversaries, Cao said: “Piss us off [and] we’ll sneak into your country in the middle of the night and snatch you and your wife while you sleep in your beds.”
Dozens of uniformed sailors from the USS Billings, a shallow-water combat ship, attended the event. One naval specialist told the Guardian he wanted to see the president but was more anxious to return home after deployment in the Caribbean. He said the ship had been scheduled to return to Florida but was rerouted to the Baltimore announcement.