BROWNSVILLE, Texas - The U.S. shipbuilding industry will soon be second to none and the Port of Brownsville will play a monumental role in that transformation, officials said.
Port Alpha, a $3.2 billion shipyard project that will build autonomous and manned ships, broke ground on port land on Wednesday, Sept. 30.
U.S Vice President J.D. Vance, Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, joined Saronic Technologies CEO Dino Mavrookas and others to the groundbreaking where the Austin, Texas-based company will build the mega yard on more than 800 acres of land.
The project, expected to create 10,000 direct jobs in ten years, has the option to expand to some 4,400 acres.
Vance said the new facility represents to him the American Dream because the type of equipment to be made here will the build by American workers.
“You have think for a second about every time we send somebody to war or to a combat situation, we send them with rifles, we send them with missiles, with send them with drones now, autonomous ships and none autonomous ships,” he said. “We send them with modern technology that has been around for 60, 70, 80 years.”
But do they have the tools they need to win their missions and to come home safe?
That, however is about to change for good, the vice president asserted.
He said workers at the shipyard will build some of the most sophisticated equipment that otherwise could be built out of the country.
“How do we send the next generation of Americans to the most difficult tasks in the world,” he said, “if the tools they have are not even made by American citizens?”
The United States has been losing factories, shipyards, construction and technology jobs, he added, but that is also changing.
Vance said the facility will be built, not by people outside the United States, but by Americans, by their fellow citizens.
“You will be your champions in Brownsville, Texas,” he said. “We will be your champions in Washington, D.C.”
Abbott said having the shipyard coming here was the result of the federal, state and local governments working together for the very best of American ingenuity.
He thanked the Trump Administration, Saronic and everybody else who contributed in choosing Texas and Brownsville for the shipyard project.
After all, the governor said, Texas has been the country’s number one state for the most jobs created, for economic development projects and for being one of the nation’s most business friendly states.
He said the $3.2 billion Saronic project is the latest and largest economic development endeavors to be built in South Texas today, and he added the 10,000 new jobs will inject $260 billion into the Texas economy.
“Saronic is truly changing the art of ship building and, in the process, changing the art of natural security,” Abbott said. “One thing that is sure is that seas of the world will be ruled by ships made right here in Texas.
Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. and Mayor John Cowen said Port Alpha is another game changer and marks a historical moment for Brownsville, for Cameron County and for Texas.
In a related development, Saronic announced that the company has been awarded a production Other Transaction (OT) for Marauder, its 180-foot autonomous ship, under the U.S. Navy’s MUSV Marketplace.
“The award follows eight days of continuous at-sea testing, during which Marauder completed more than 140 scenarios without failure, including autonomously tracking and maneuvering around vessels and a battery of passive-perception tests,” a company release states. “This news builds on Saronic’s existing Navy contract for Corsair and the recently announced award to build Landing Craft Utility vessels at Port Alpha.”
