Published October 13, 2026 at 9:17 PM EDT

Anduril Industries appears to be well on its way towards getting what it wants from Baltimore County: a huge personal property tax break as part of its plan to build a shipyard at Sparrows Point.

At a public hearing before the county council Tuesday night, council members and administration officials spoke glowingly of the project, dubbed Arsenal-2, and the 3,100 jobs Anduril is promising it will create.

“These are the modern manufacturing jobs,” said Mike Ertel, a Democrat and the county council chairman.

Jonathan Sachs, the county’s director of economic and workforce development said what Anduril is planning “is the largest economic project and business attraction in the history of Baltimore County.”

The military technology company announced last week that it plans to build a shipyard at Tradepoint Atlantic in Eastern Baltimore County. There will be a $3.7 billion private capital investment.

Anduril will build components for the Virginia-class attack submarine. Beyond the 3,100 people who will be working on site, thousands of more jobs are expected to be created indirectly, including through construction.

The subs will be assembled elsewhere.

David Frash, Anduril’s Director of State and Local Government Relations, told the council that this is the largest investment Anduril has made in its nine year history.

He said depending on the pieces falling into place, including permitting, Anduril hopes to begin hiring in 2029 with the shipyard being ready in 2030.

“It’s our intent to put a shovel in the ground this calendar year,” Frash said.

As part of the deal, Baltimore County and the state are being asked to provide an estimated $481 million in tax breaks and incentives. Baltimore County’s portion will be a personal property tax break of up to $210 million over 30 years.

There is a long list of machinery that would not be taxed, from cranes, to rail cars to dry docks.

County officials defend the legislation, saying if Anduril wasn’t there, then there would be no machinery to tax.

The U.S. Navy has awarded Anduril a contract of up to $2.9 billion to expand its submarine production. Anduril Industries was founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey, who is a major donor to President Trump and other Republicans.

The one person who spoke against the project at Tuesday’s hearing, Reisterstown resident Darius Baktash, questioned whether the county would be able to hold Anduril accountable so “all the things that we are expecting of Palmer Luckey and Anduril will actually occur.”

During its rollout of its Arsenal-2 program at Tradepoint Atlantic last week, Anduril focused on its plans to build components for manned submarines. It later confirmed with WYPR that it also will “be positioned to build large scale autonomous systems in the far off future.”

Anduril says the Tradepoint site has a lot of advantages.

Tradepoint is at Sparrows Point, which used to be the home of Bethlehem Steel and shipyard. What made it a good site in the past is still the case for Anduril: access to water, rail and interstate.

It’s also not far from the shipyards where the subs will be assembled in Connecticut and Virginia. Anduril said there also are a lot of available workers nearby.

The county’s tax break legislation is moving quickly through the council. It was introduced the night before Anduril made its plans public.

The county council will hold a second public hearing on the proposed tax break for Anduril on Oct. 27. A final vote is expected on Nov. 2.