President Trump, looking for a political win, plans to travel to the site of a former steel plant near Baltimore on Tuesday to promote the next chapter in his administration’s effort to remake the military.
The U.S. Navy has awarded a $2.9 billion contract to Anduril, the defense tech company that makes artificial-intelligence-backed weapons, to use the site of the former Bethlehem Steel plant to manufacture critical components for the Navy’s nuclear-powered attack submarines known as Virginia-class.
The announcement comes just days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appointed the company’s co-founder, the billionaire Palmer Luckey, to a three-man task force along with Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX, and Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, to help the military figure out the future of war.
Christian Brose, the president and chief strategy officer of Anduril, said the firm would invest $3.7 billion in the project, and that it would directly create more than 3,000 jobs. The new shipyard is expected to open in 2030.
“We need to grow the maritime industrial base, the submarine industrial base, so that we can produce more submarines,” Mr. Brose said.
Mr. Brose said manufacturing drone boats or unmanned weapons of war were not a part of the initial plans for the site.
With Republicans at risk of losing control of Congress in the midterm elections, Mr. Trump has been traveling across the country, including to deep red states, holding rallies to try to drive his most loyal followers to the polls. Polling shows voters have grown dissatisfied with his focus on the unpopular war in Iran and failure to bring down the cost of goods. But Tuesday’s announcement is designed to demonstrate that the president is focused on one of his main campaign pledges: bringing back manufacturing jobs.
“President Trump knows a self-sustaining domestic shipbuilding sector is critical for national and economic security,” said Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman.
Maryland Democrats are expected to attend the announcement, after lengthy negotiations and tax incentives aided the redevelopment of the site. The state of Maryland and Baltimore County are expected to award hundreds of millions of tax subsidies to the project.
But Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, will not be attending after the Trump administration blocked him from speaking, even though the governor played a role in negotiating the deal, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“Governor Moore has always said he will work with anyone when it comes to delivering for Marylanders, but bow to no one when it comes to standing up for them,” said Rhyan Lake, a spokesperson for the governor. “The governor is proud to welcome Anduril to Baltimore County and the thousands of permanent jobs this investment is bringing to our state.”
Tradepoint Atlantic, the logistics company that took over the site of the former steel mill in 2014, has already been awarded the largest tax credit in the history of the county. Local officials broke ground on a major new shipping terminal at the site in May.
Mr. Trump’s visit to the site is also expected to bring out protesters, who are concerned about the use of drone technology in the military.
