Saronic Agrees to Build Giant Shipyard at Port of Brownsville
Project ranks among the most substantial investments in American shipbuilding in a generation
The unmanned naval vessel startup Saronic has agreed to build a giant new shipyard at the port of Brownsville, with support from the state of Texas and a substantial property-tax credit package from the local county.
"When this shipyard gets fully built out, there will be about 10,000 employees. Saronic is going to be providing about $750 million in annual paychecks to Texans. That's game-changing for the population of Texas. As Governor, I'm proud that Saronic calls Texas home," said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in a statement.
Austin-based Saronic plans to spend about $3.3 billion to build what it believes will be the largest shipyard in the United States. The company wanted to build in Brownsville because of plentiful waterfront space, a substantial workforce, and advantages in infrastructure and logistics. Partnerships with local training institutes will help local workers prepare for employment at the yard's high-tech new complex.
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"Built from the ground up to deliver ships at a speed and scale not seen since World War II, this investment is about more than constructing a shipyard. It is about rebuilding the industrial capacity, workforce, and manufacturing advantage required to ensure American maritime leadership for decades to come," said Saronic co-founder and CEO Dino Mavrookas in a statement.
Saronic is known best for its small autonomous patrol boats and for its entry into the Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) competition, a crewboat-sized naval USV that can carry several containerized payloads on an open aft deck. It is vertically integrated for engineering R&D and manufacturing - it also owns the former Gulf Craft yard in Franklin, Louisiana - and it has long signaled its ambitions to become a large-scale shipbuilder for the Navy. But Mavrookas told USNI and other outlets earlier this week that the company plans to build ships up to 850 feet long - big enough for a fully-manned destroyer, cruiser or amphib, not just a 180-foot unmanned vessel. If built out to full possible size of 4,000 acres, it would be one of the largest shipyards in the world. The yard announced this week is just "phase one," Mavrookas told USNI - and he confirmed that the company has ambitions to build manned warships with a technological edge.
