President Donald Trump traveled to Baltimore this week to announce a $7 billion deal with the defense tech firm Anduril to build autonomous submarines as well as components for the Navy’s Virginia-class attack submarines.

When fully implemented, the plan is expected to revitalize the Sparrows Point area of the city that once employed nearly 30,000 people at a steel mill and shipyard run by Bethlehem Steel.

The announcement has been met with mixed reactions.

A major point of concern seems to be Anduril’s expansion into traditional defense contracts. The company was established in 2017 and has focused on building autonomous drones and sea vehicles and developing AI-enabled software to operate them. American submarines are currently built by General Dynamics and Huntington Ingalls Industries.

The announcement has raised some eyebrows considering Anduril’s founder Palmer Luckey’s recent appointment as a co-lead, along with Elon Musk and Newt Gingrich, on a Pentagon study about AI-powered weapons and the future of warfare.

It remains to be seen how Anduril, a company that has so far specialized in small drones will fare building components like torpedo tubes for crewed vessels, to say nothing of scaling up to eventually build hull sections. The company will undoubtedly face a steep learning curve as it expands into more traditional defense contracts.

One of the biggest challenges the company will face will be the same workforce issues plaguing its existing counterparts.

The Government Accountability Office reported last year that the shipbuilding industrial base needs 174,000 new workers in the next decade to keep pace with the Navy’s needs. Anduril’s expansion will only add to those workforce demands.

But such concerns should be tempered a bit considering the current state of American shipbuilding and years of ineffective defense policies.

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