Donald Trump announced on Tuesday the opening of a new $6.6bn shipbuilding factory in Baltimore. The facility will be partly funded by the US government and owned by Anduril Industries, a defence company.
The factory, to be named "Arsenal Two", is planned to build torpedo tubes and other sections for Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines. The project is funded by $2.9bn from the US Navy, alongside $3.7bn in private funding.
Anduril Industries' founder, Palmer Luckey, is a significant Republican campaign fundraiser. Last week, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth named Luckey as an adviser to the Pentagon's "Project Meridien", which is studying the future of warfare.
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao praised the plant as a "partnership between the navy and Anduril that breaks through bureaucratic red tape", despite the company's lack of a history in submarine-building. Anduril has stated that the operation will not be ready to produce ship parts until 2030.