SPARROWS POINT, Md. — President Donald Trump is scheduled to travel to Baltimore County on Tuesday as defense technology company Anduril Industries unveils plans for a $3.7 billion shipbuilding complex at Sparrows Point, an investment that would return large-scale shipbuilding to one of the country’s most storied industrial sites.
The planned facility, called Arsenal-2, would encompass about 2 million square feet at Tradepoint Atlantic and is expected to create more than 3,100 permanent jobs while supporting more than 14,000 jobs overall, according to Gov. Wes Moore’s administration. State officials project the investment will generate more than $2 billion in annual economic output, including about $312 million in wages each year.
Anduril says the shipyard will expand the nation’s submarine industrial base and add production capacity needed to support the Navy’s Virginia-class attack submarine program. The Navy has said the broader industrial base must be capable of delivering two Virginia-class attack submarines and one Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine each year while maintaining the existing fleet, a production goal that has driven federal efforts to expand suppliers, manufacturing capacity and the maritime workforce.
“Sparrows Point helped build the fleet that won World War II,” Brian Schimpf, Anduril’s co-founder and chief executive, said in a statement released by the Maryland governor’s office. “With Arsenal-2, Anduril will return large-scale shipbuilding to a site that can once again define American naval power.”
Bethlehem Steel once operated one of the world’s largest steel mills and an adjoining shipyard at Sparrows Point, where Libery ships were built during World War II. The sprawling property, which closed as a steelmaking complex in 2012, has since been redeveloped by Tradepoint Atlantic into a logistics, port and industrial center with deep-water access, rail connections and proximity to interstate highways.
“This massive new project will deliver the largest private investment and create the most jobs in Maryland in over a decade,” Moore said in the state announcement, saying the project would provide new routes into advanced manufacturing and maritime jobs.
The Democratic governor’s embrace of the project and Trump’s appearance at its unveiling give Tuesday’s event an unusual bipartisan economic-development backdrop. Moore has made efforts to attract advanced manufacturing and defense investment a central part of his economic agenda, while Trump has repeatedly called for expanding domestic defense production and rebuilding U.S. shipbuilding capacity.ion.
For Tradepoint Atlantic, Arsenal-2 would add defense manufacturing to a redevelopment already reshaping Baltimore’s waterfront industrial economy. A separate $1.2 billion container terminal is under construction at Sparrows Point and is expected to add substantial cargo capacity to the Port of Baltimore.
