According to reports from the USNI News and the American maritime magazine "The Maritime Executive" on October 13th, the United States will invest $15 billion to modernize and upgrade the Bremerton Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and has issued multiple construction contract tenders, with contractors expected to be selected by 2027. Just last week, Anduril, a US national defense technology company, officially announced that it has been awarded a contract by the US Navy to support the construction of the Arsenal-2 submarine components and module shipyard in Maryland, with a total investment of $6.6 billion.
The Bremerton Puget Sound Naval Shipyard was built in 1891, and the existing infrastructure is no longer sufficient to support the maintenance work of the Ford class aircraft carriers. As the only shipyard on the West Coast of the United States that has obtained certification for nuclear powered aircraft carrier refueling, the goal of this renovation is to ensure that the shipyard can continue to have the ability to conduct major repairs and maintenance for nuclear powered aircraft carriers and submarines in the future.
Anduril describes the planned shipyard as a "software defined shipyard" that will build a modern shipbuilding system around digital software and advanced manufacturing technology. The system will primarily be based on the company's ArsenalOS industrial software platform, integrating manufacturing processes, outfitting sequences, material transportation, inspection procedures, and more into one system, allowing workers and managers to stay informed of production status in real-time.The White House stated that after the shipyard is fully operational, the US Navy's annual submarine construction is expected to increase by about 9 million working hours, which will increase the production capacity of the Virginia class nuclear submarine project by about 15%.
