WASHINGTON — Maritime defense technology company Saronic has officially begun construction on its new Port Alpha shipyard in Brownville, Texas.
First announced in July, the facility represents a ground-up build occupying approximately 800 acres initially, with potential expansion to 4,000 acres. Saronic expects the yard to employ roughly 10,000 workers across trades including welding and machining, alongside specialized roles in robotics, software engineering, and naval architecture.
“Port Alpha is engineered from the foundation to produce autonomous and manned vessels at scale, with modularity and throughput central to the facility’s design,” said Saronic co-founder and CEO Dino Mavrookas. “This stands among the defining engineering challenges of our era, and we are assembling the team, partnerships, and capital required to address it.”
The groundbreaking ceremony drew Vice President JD Vance and Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Saronic stated that the shipyard will construct Landing Craft Utility vessels. The Navy selected the company as one of three contractors for the LCU program earlier this month in a roughly $280 million award. Navy officials expect deliveries to begin in late 2028.
“We have not yet formally broken ground, and already we hold a contract to build LCU vessels for the Navy and Marine Corps,” Mavrookas told attendees. “The United States faces a capacity shortfall, and Saronic’s Port Alpha is positioned to address it.”
Saronic already manufactures autonomous surface vessels at its Franklin, Louisiana yard, including the Corsair deployed by U.S. forces in recent Middle East operations. The company also produces the Marauder medium unmanned surface vessel, which the Navy announced Tuesday it is purchasing 10 units under the MUSV marketplace program.
“By January 1, 2027, we will have the capacity to produce 20 Marauders annually, and we have just secured a Navy production contract for the MUSV program,” Mavrookas said.
Mavrookas added that Saronic has invested $300 million in new infrastructure at its Franklin yard to support Marauder production.