Navy Pays Anduril $2.9 Billion as U.S. Submarine Capacity Lags
The post argues the Navy turned to Anduril because only two U.S. yards build nuclear submarines and deliver far below the required rate, with China's shipbuilding capacity vastly larger. Anduril is investing $3.7 billion in a new Sparrows Point shipyard, Arsenal-2, with operations planned for 2030.
Original post · 1 min read
The US Navy just paid $2.9 billion to a company that has never built a submarine. Here's why they had no choice.
America has exactly two shipyards that can build nuclear subs. Electric Boat in Connecticut. Newport News in Virginia. The Navy needs two Virginia-class boats a year from them. They deliver 1.1.
Then it gets worse. Under AUKUS, America promised to sell Australia 3 to 5 Virginia-class submarines starting in the early 2030s. We signed a deal to export a product we can't build fast enough for our own fleet.
And the number behind all of it comes from the Navy's own intelligence office. China's shipbuilding capacity sits around 23 million tons a year. America's is about 100,000 tons. 230 times larger. One Chinese shipbuilder, CSSC, built more commercial tonnage in a single year than every American yard combined has built since World War II.
Both incumbent sub yards carry backlogs stretching past 2040, and the supplier base behind them shrank by thousands of companies after the Cold War. You cannot order your way out of that. There was physically no third option to call.
So the Navy invented one. Anduril adds $3.7 billion of its own money, breaks ground on the bones of Bethlehem Steel at Sparrows Point, once the largest steelworks on earth, shuttered in 2012, the yard complex that fed the fleet that won WWII. Hiring starts in 2029. Operations in 2030.
Four years from announcement to first output, and in American shipbuilding that counts as a sprint.
America has exactly two shipyards that can build nuclear subs. Electric Boat in Connecticut. Newport News in Virginia. The Navy needs two Virginia-class boats a year from them. They deliver 1.1.
Then it gets worse. Under AUKUS, America promised to sell Australia 3 to 5 Virginia-class submarines starting in the early 2030s. We signed a deal to export a product we can't build fast enough for our own fleet.
And the number behind all of it comes from the Navy's own intelligence office. China's shipbuilding capacity sits around 23 million tons a year. America's is about 100,000 tons. 230 times larger. One Chinese shipbuilder, CSSC, built more commercial tonnage in a single year than every American yard combined has built since World War II.
Both incumbent sub yards carry backlogs stretching past 2040, and the supplier base behind them shrank by thousands of companies after the Cold War. You cannot order your way out of that. There was physically no third option to call.
So the Navy invented one. Anduril adds $3.7 billion of its own money, breaks ground on the bones of Bethlehem Steel at Sparrows Point, once the largest steelworks on earth, shuttered in 2012, the yard complex that fed the fleet that won WWII. Hiring starts in 2029. Operations in 2030.
Four years from announcement to first output, and in American shipbuilding that counts as a sprint.
Anduril Industries @anduriltechAnduril is investing $3.7B into Arsenal-2.
The next great American Shipyard.
♥ 236 · ⟲ 21 · 👁 18.1KView on X ↗
