Saronic has broken ground on Port Alpha, a next-generation American shipyard designed to build both autonomous and manned vessels and expand US maritime industrial capacity.
Situated on 835 acres at the Port of Brownsville with the option to expand to nearly 4,400 acres, Port Alpha represents a private capital investment of more than $3 billion.
Port Alpha is intended to expand US shipbuilding capacity for commercial and defense vessels, supporting federal maritime initiatives and the US Navy’s plans for a hybrid fleet.
Saronic was honored to host Vice President JD Vance and Governor Greg Abbott, along with federal, state, and local officials, critical partners, members of the Brownsville community, and Saronic leadership at the site, where Vance and Abbott delivered remarks.
“American shipbuilding needs to be rebuilt for what comes next,” said Dino Mavrookas, Co-Founder and CEO of Saronic, speaking at the ceremony.
“Port Alpha is where that starts."
“Texas is the new leader in American shipbuilding,” said Governor Abbott.
“Port Alpha will create 10,000 jobs and put hundreds of millions of dollars in annual paychecks into the hands of Texans. These ships will be built in Brownsville by American workers for the defense of the United States.”
About Port Alpha
Saronic is building a clean-sheet, software-defined facility designed from the ground up to deliver autonomous, autonomy-capable, and manned ships at speed and scale. At opening, Port Alpha will introduce an initial 150,000 gross tons of annual shipbuilding capacity with the potential to scale to over 2 million gross tons.
Port Alpha will initially be capable of producing vessels up to 850 feet (approximately 259 meters), while future site expansion could support production of vessels over 1,200 feet (366 meters), ultimately making it the largest shipyard in America, according to Saronic,
This first phase will focus on building autonomous, autonomy-capable, and manned ships, including landing craft utility (LCU) vessels for the US Navy. Saronic was recently awarded a contract to build these core Navy logistics vessels, taking on an immediate and urgent need for the Fleet today while continuing to ramp up to meet the needs of an autonomous maritime future.
Saronic was also recently awarded a production contract by the US Navy for its Marauder autonomous unmanned surface vessel (USV).