Brownsville, TX is getting new shipyard

[GunnyGene]

This is a $3billion investment that the company is making.

https://www.twz.com/sea/drone-ship-...in-texas-capable-of-building-850-foot-vessels

Excerpt:

Saronic, the company that makes the first sea drones ever to be used as kinetic weapons by American forces, announced it will build a big new shipyard in Brownsville, Texas where they plan to construct an array of crewed and uncrewed ships as big as 850 feet. It is a big step for a company whose largest vessel is a 180-foot drone boat called Marauder.

The move comes as the U.S. is struggling to come anywhere near keeping pace with China in the number of ships it can build and amid delays and cost overruns of projects underway. Boosting America’s capacity to turn out new ships and keep existing ones sailing has been a focus of the Trump administration.

The Austin, Texas-headquartered Saronic said it plans to invest more than $3 billion of its own money to build the facility, which it is calling Port Alpha. The location was chosen after a year-long search.

“Brownsville was selected after a rigorous review of workforce availability, infrastructure readiness, land scale, logistics, and expansion potential,” the company said in a release. “Initially situated on 835 acres at the Port of Brownsville, with the opportunity to expand to nearly 4,400 acres, Port Alpha will encompass a shipyard and manufacturing facility capable of producing vessels up to 850 feet. Future site expansion could support the production of vessels over 1,200 ft. The site provides hundreds of acres of waterfront access, deepwater channel connectivity, multimodal logistics infrastructure, and room for long-term expansion—everything required to anchor a next-generation shipbuilding hub.”

 

[txramfan]

They've been ship breaking there for years, it will be nice to see new ships being built near by.

 

[RC44Mag]

Our Navy NEEDS more ships, really good ships that can defend against barrages of drones besides all the other offensive and defensive capabilities

 

[Jeepnik]

I literally watched and experienced the death of shipbuilding and repair in this country. I was employed by Bethlehem Steel Shipbuilding when the death knell started to sound. Bethship had numerous shipyards on the west coast, east coast and gulf coast. They also had quite a few overseas.

Within a few short years shipyards had all but ceased to exist in the US.

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

Here is a (long) interview of Dino Mavrookas, the Saronic CEO on The Shawn Ryan Show. Unless I'm badly mistaken, Saronic autonomous vessels (drones) are currently in use in Trump's war with Iran.

 

[GunnyGene]

^^ You are correct. The Navy has been trialing them for a few years, and a couple days ago they blew up some stuff at an Iranian port.

https://www.twz.com/sea/kamikaze-drone-boats-used-by-u-s-in-combat-for-the-first-time

 

[mirglip]

A shipyard in Brownsville ought to be good for the Mexican economy.