Saronic breaks ground on new Port Alpha shipyard in Texas

Saronic is planning to start construction on Port Alpha in 2026. (Saronic)

WASHINGTON — Maritime defense tech firm Saronic broke ground today on its new shipyard in Brownville, Texas, known as Port Alpha.

The company revealed in July plans for Port Alpha — an entirely new shipyard being built from scratch in Texas — and shared that the shipyard will initially occupy roughly 800 acres, with the possibility to expand to a total of 4,000 acres. Saronic has boasted that the yard aims to hire roughly 10,000 direct workers for roles like welding, machining, and will also hire for positions for robotics, software engineering, and naval architecture.

“Port Alpha is designed from the ground up to produce both autonomous and manned vessels at scale, with modularity and throughput shaping the facilities architecture,” Saronic co-founder and CEO Dino Mavrookas said in a statement today. “This is one of the defining engineering challenges of our time, and we are building the team, partnerships, and capital base to meet it.”

Among those who attended the ground breaking ceremony today were Vice President JD Vance and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

According to Saronic, its Landing Craft Utility vessels will be built at the new shipyard. Saronic was one of three companies the Navy selected to build the LCU vessels earlier this month as part of a roughly $280 million deal. Deliveries of the vessels, which are designed to shuttle personnel, weapons, and cargo, are expected to start in late 2028, according to the Navy.

“We haven’t even formally broken ground, and we have a contract to build LCU or landing craft utility vessels for the Navy and the Marine Corps,” Mavrookas said during today’s event. “There is a capacity problem in the United States, and Saronic and Port Alpha is solving it.”

Saronic already produces several autonomous surface vessels at its shipyard in Franklin, La. — such as the Corsair that US forces have utilized in recent operations in the Middle East . Likewise, it also makes a medium unmanned surface vessel known as the Marauder, which the Navy said Tuesday it is buying 10 of as part of the service’s MUSV marketplace program .

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“Starting January 1st of 2027, three months from now, we’ll have the production capacity to build 20 Marauders per year, and we were actually just awarded a production contract for Marauder from the United States Navy for the MUSV program,” Mavrookas said.

According to Mavrookas, Saronic has invested $300 million for new shipyard infrastructure at the Franklin yard to support production of the Marauder.

萨罗尼克公司计划于2026年开始建设阿尔法港。（萨罗尼克公司）

华盛顿——海事国防科技公司 Saronic 今天在德克萨斯州布朗维尔为其新造船厂（名为 Port Alpha）举行了奠基仪式。

该公司于7月公布了位于德克萨斯州的全新造船厂——阿尔法港的建设计划。该计划指出，造船厂初期占地约800英亩，未来可能扩展至4000英亩。萨罗尼克公司宣称，该造船厂计划直接雇佣约1万名员工，从事焊接、机械加工等工作，同时还将招聘机器人、软件工程和船舶设计等领域的人才。

“阿尔法港从一开始就旨在大规模生产无人驾驶和载人船舶，模块化和高吞吐量是其设施架构的核心，”Saronic联合创始人兼首席执行官Dino Mavrookas今天在一份声明中表示。“这是我们这个时代最具挑战性的工程难题之一，我们正在组建团队、建立合作伙伴关系并筹集资金来应对这一挑战。”

今天出席奠基仪式的嘉宾包括副总统 JD Vance 和德克萨斯州州长 Greg Abbott。

据萨罗尼克公司称，其登陆艇将在新船厂建造。本月初，海军选定萨罗尼克公司作为三家建造登陆艇的公司之一，该合同价值约2.8亿美元。海军方面表示，这些用于运送人员、武器和货物的登陆艇预计将于2028年底开始交付。

“我们甚至还没正式破土动工，就已经和海军陆战队签订了建造LCU（登陆艇）的合同，”马夫鲁卡斯在今天的活动中说道。“美国存在产能问题，而萨罗尼克和阿尔法港正在解决这个问题。”

萨罗尼克公司位于路易斯安那州富兰克林的造船厂已经生产多种自主水面舰艇，例如美军近期在中东行动中使用的“海盗”级无人水面舰艇。此外，该公司还生产一种名为“掠夺者”的中型无人水面舰艇。美国海军周二宣布，将根据其“中型无人水面舰艇市场计划”（MUSV）采购10艘该型舰艇。

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“从 2027 年 1 月 1 日开始，也就是三个月后，我们将具备每年生产 20 艘 Marauder 的生产能力，而且我们刚刚从美国海军获得了 MUSV 项目的 Marauder 生产合同，”马夫鲁卡斯说。

据马夫鲁卡斯称，萨罗尼克公司已在富兰克林船厂投资 3 亿美元用于新的造船厂基础设施，以支持“掠夺者”级战舰的生产。