Gotta get me some of these to help on the sheep farm! What can possibly go wrong?
The article doesn’t admit until the last paragraph, and ambiguously then, that the American Humane Society is involved. The AHS isn’t just involved, but has endorsed the work.
The article admits that the current tech is focused on common health problems for the breeds involved.
The rest of the article is hype intended to cast Anduril and Palmer Luckey in the worst possible light. Phoooey.
Grok:
Anduril Industries, founded by Palmer Luckey, is developing Arsenal-2, a roughly 2-million-square-foot “software-defined” shipyard at Tradepoint Atlantic (the former Bethlehem Steel site) in Sparrows Point, Baltimore County, Maryland. The total commitment is described as $6.6 billion: Anduril is investing $3.7 billion in private capital, and the U.S. Navy has awarded a contract worth up to $2.9 billion tied to production outcomes.
The facility will manufacture components and large-scale blocks (including items such as torpedo tubes, sterns, and bow sections) for the Navy’s Virginia-class attack submarines. These will be shipped to the primary builders—General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding—for final assembly. Some reporting also notes capacity for autonomous underwater vessels and other undersea systems. The project aims to expand the U.S. submarine industrial base and support higher production rates.
Maryland officials, including Governor Wes Moore, have called it the largest private investment and job creator in the state in more than a decade. It is expected to create more than 3,100 direct permanent jobs and support over 14,000 jobs overall (direct and indirect), while generating more than $2 billion in annual economic output, including roughly $312 million in wages. Site preparation and permitting are underway, with operations targeted for 2030. State and local incentives are part of the package.
The announcement occurred on October 6, 2026, with President Donald Trump visiting the site. Anduril’s CEO Brian Schimpf has highlighted the location’s industrial and maritime heritage—Sparrows Point was a major steel mill and shipyard that produced vessels during both world wars before the steel operations closed in 2012. The site had previously been considered for offshore wind fabrication, but those plans shifted in favor of this defense project.
Arsenal-2 is Anduril’s second major manufacturing facility after Arsenal-1 in Ohio, which produces the Fury semi-autonomous aircraft. Anduril, known for autonomous systems, drones, and defense software, has secured substantial government contracts and reached a high valuation following recent funding rounds.
A conceptual rendering of the Arsenal-2 facility.
This represents a significant expansion of U.S. naval industrial capacity at a historically important site, with both economic and strategic implications for submarine production. Details can evolve as permitting, construction, and contracting progress.
The Taiwan Strait is about 180 miles long and 100 miles wide – 18,000 square miles. Let’s say the military launch 18,000 drones – one per square mile. A good military pilot could fly through that density of drones. And of course, the pilot would only have to wait a few hours until the drones run out of fuel and crash. Then the military would have to launch another 18,000 drones. Well, Zelensky would probably be happy to promise the supply of drones, provided it was a cash-up-front deal.
Meanwhile, the Chinese would presumably be launching ballistic missiles at Taiwan high over these drones.
It is notable that President Xi has fired almost all the generals at the top of the Chinese military. Perhaps he does not like stupid ideas from his military leaders. Now there is a model the US could constructively adopt!