R.I. Commerce awards $5.4M in tax incentives for new, submarine manufacturing plant in Quonset

Anduril Industries, Inc. was awarded $5.4 million in state tax incentives to open a new, submarine manufacturing plant in Quonset Business Park. (Courtesy Anduril Industries Inc.)

A national defense contractor will receive up to $5.4 million in redeemable state tax credits in exchange for opening a manufacturing plant, with up to 133 new jobs, in Quonset Business Park.

Rhode Island Commerce Corp.’s board of directors authorized the jobs and development tax incentives for Anduril Industries, Inc. in a unanimous vote at its meeting Monday, according to Matt Touchette, a Commerce spokesperson. 

The new Quonset facility marks a significant expansion of Anduril’s autonomous submarine division, based out of Quincy, Massachusetts. The Quincy facility produces up to 200 of the 19-foot-long, 6,000-pound “Dive-LD” submarines each year, according to a company spokesperson. Quonset was chosen due to its proximity to the Quincy manufacturing site, along with relevant in-state companies like General Dynamics Electric Boat.

“We are thrilled to build a state-of-the-art production manufacturing facility for our LD family of vehicles in Quonset Point,” Shane Arnott, senior vice president at Anduril, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Affordable, distributed mass is a central tenet of undersea deterrence, and we look forward to supporting large-scale, cost-effective AUV deployments with our new facility” 

The 100,000-to-150,000-square-foot Quonset facility is expected to open in September 2025, at an estimated cost of $8.4 million. A $2.5 million award through Commerce’s Rebuild Rhode Island Tax Credit program will help defray some of the development cost, providing the company honors its 12-year-lease agreement with Quonset Development Corp., according to Touchette. 

A separate $2.9 million in tax credits through Commerce’s Qualified Jobs Incentive tax program applies to the 133 new, full-time jobs, with a $95,000 in average annual salary, the company has committed to bringing to Rhode Island over the next decade.

Both state incentive programs require that recipients build, and hire, as promised to receive the redeemable tax credits.

State leaders have pushed to position Rhode Island at the forefront of the “blue economy” sector, securing its foothold in the nascent offshore wind industry through workforce training programs and incentives to lure industry power players to set up shop in the Ocean State.

“Anduril joins an esteemed list of the nation’s leading defense contractors with operations in Rhode Island, like General Dynamics Electric Boat, Raytheon, and Textron, among others,” Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement. “Their addition further demonstrates Quonset as a hub of good-paying, quality jobs for Rhode Islanders that will help our state in raising incomes for all.”

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