Trump announces $6.6 billion defense shipyard owned by top Republican corporate donor | Baltimore

Donald Trump announced Tuesday the opening of a new $6.6 billion shipbuilding plant in Baltimore, partly financed by the U.S. government but owned by Anduril Industries, a politically connected defense company.

Trump’s appearance at a currently unused shipyard in Sparrows Point is a boost for Anduril, whose founder, Palmer Luckey, is a major GOP campaign fundraiser. Luckey has hosted campaign fundraisers for at least 20 Republican politicians, including Trump, the Guardian reported in August. He has donated $5.9 million to Republican causes since 2017.

Last week, the United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth named Luckey, a strong proponent of autonomous warfare, as an advisor to the Pentagon’s recently launched “Project Meridian,” which is tasked with studying the future of warfare.

At the Maryland event, Trump called Luckey “my friend” and a “brilliant guy.” Luckey was not present at the event.

The Anduril Shipyard project is funded in part by $2.9 billion from the U.S. Navy, as well as $3.7 billion in private financing. Officials said the new factory, which will be called “Arsenal Two,” will build torpedo tubes and other sections of Virginia-class nuclear attack submarines.

Rapidly building ships is a priority for Trump, whose administration has promoted a future “golden fleet.”

Trump said American taxpayers would “receive a 40% stake” in the shipyard. It’s unclear what he meant and whether the U.S. government is taking a stake in the company, as it has done in other companies.

Anduril said operation would not be ready to produce ship parts until 2030.

Although the company has made smaller unmanned maritime systems, it won’t say how many have been deployed. The company has never before played a known role in the highly specialized manufacturing of crewed submarines.

Officials mingled at the dusty industrial site with dozens of uniformed sailors from the USS Billings, a shallow-water combat ship. A naval specialist at the gathering said he wanted to see the president but was more eager to return home after his deployment to the Caribbean. He said the ship was supposed to return home to Florida but was redirected to the event.

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao called the plant “a partnership between the Navy and Anduril that cuts through bureaucratic red tape.” He gave Anduril extraordinary praise, despite the company’s lack of experience in building submarines.

“Anduril will make these systems for you!” » he promised the sailors seated in front of him.

And he has repeatedly adopted Trump’s new term for artificial intelligence, calling it “super intelligence.”

In a strange warning to adversaries, Cao said: “Fuck us (and) we will sneak into your country in the middle of the night and kidnap you and your wife while you sleep in your beds.”