Anduril Wins The Big Navy Prize
The Navy has awarded Anduril a contract worth up to $2.9 billion to help build more Virginia-class attack submarines. Anduril said Tuesday it will put $3.7 billion of its own money into a new shipyard in Sparrows Point, Maryland. The yard will be called “Arsenal-2” and it will cover more than 2 million square feet and is expected to create over 3,100 jobs. The yard will make torpedo tubes and larger hulls sections for General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding, which will do the final assembly but Anduril’s ArsenalOS software will run the production. It’s expected to open in 2030 if everything goes according to plan. The US claims that this is the largest shipyard in the US since the second World War.
The Navy’s $2.9 billion is a ceiling and not a firm commitment. It’s payments are tied to demonstrated production. An industry official said federal money pays for what Anduril builds, not for the yard itself, which leaves most of the execution risk with the company. Before the Maryland site opens, Anduril will make components at a new 160,000-square-foot facility in Orange County, California. The company said the plant gives it a two-year head start on validating its manufacturing methods before launching.
The deal will push Anduril well beyond its roots in drones and autonomy software. The Navy has struggled to meet its submarine goals, and a Government Accountability Office report last year found that the seven private yards building Navy ships were not positioned to meet current targets. Palmer Luckey, the founder of Anduril, said that the US can’t meet it’s own demand, let alone, it’s allies demand for ships and subs. Love him or hate him, it can’t get much worse for US shipbuilding so it’s worth a shot.
Anduril raised $5 billion in May, and now they along with so many others will begin the hunt for the Navy’s drone submarine money.
Full Auto:
Raytheon lands a contract worth up to $24.4B for SM-6 interceptors.
It is a five-year deal with two option years. The Navy is using it to replenish stockpiles depleted by conflicts in the Middle East.
The Army puts $4.15B into counter-drone contracts.
Ten companies, including DroneShield, L3Harris WESCAM and Echodyne, won awards to protect U.S. bases and critical infrastructure. The Army has committed more than $5B against a $7B ceiling for the Domestic Shield effort
Autonomy programs are speeding up.
The Air Force will pick a single Collaborative Combat Aircraft autonomy vendor a year before the program reaches initial operational capability. The Army moved its XM30 vehicle onto a rapid-fielding path while the Air Force’s HACM missile made its first test flight.
Europe’s rearmament is strong but investors are uneasy.
Bloomberg reported Berlin plans to cut its 2027 ammunition budget, which adds pressure on Rheinmetall. Their order book is at an all time record, yet its shares are down nearly 40% from their peak.
Boeing Wins Both Contracts for the US’s Sixth-Generation Fighter Programs
The Pentagon announced that Boeing will build the Navy’s next-generation stealth fighter, beating Northrop Grumman for a development contract worth $20 billion to produce test aircraft. The program, known as F/A-XX, could grow to hundreds of billions of dollars over its life as production ramps up and international customers place orders.
The award makes them the sole builder of America’s crewed sixth-generation fighters. It won the Air Force’s F-47 in March 2025, and the two wins together shut Lockheed Martin and Northrop out of that market for the foreseeable future. This is a sharp turnaround for a company that could not catch a break in 2024 and was at serious risk of ending fighter production in early 2025.
The decision came after months of delays with the Navy’s top officers promising an August announcement, which did not come. Last year, some Pentagon officials sought to delay the program by up to three years over concerns that the industry lacked the engineering capacity for two sixth-generation fighters at once. Congress intervened with $750 million in 2025 and $1.4 billion more in fiscal 2026.
The Navy has not detailed its reasoning for giving Boeing both contracts, but there could be several factors at play. Boeing already held the F-47 contract before submitting its final Navy bid, so it could use that program to reduce risk, particularly in systems integration and software. In April, the Navy’s top admiral said one contractor could not deliver on the needed timeline. A Northrop executive did not confirm or deny that they meant their company but they acknowledged the decision, said it is waiting to learn why it lost, and that they could still file a protest. Such protests against major classified aircraft awards have rarely succeeded but both companies have full plates with Northrop building the B-21 bomber and the Sentinel missile.
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