Autonomous vessel startup Saronic has acquired Louisiana-based shipbuilder Gulf Craft as a hub for production and prototyping to support the company’s unmanned vessel developmental efforts.
“This new shipyard is a step along the way that gives Saronic the immediate capacity to develop and produce larger ASVs,” a spokesperson for the Texas-based company told USNI News.
The acquisition, which adds almost 100 acres of shipbuilding facilities dedicated to unmanned surface vessels, is expected to support the construction of up to 50 unmanned surface vessels annually. Saronic has pledged $250 million to modernize the Gulf Coast shipyard for the production of unmanned systems.
Alongside the existing Gulf Craft workforce, Saronic aims to bring up to 500 jobs in the next three to four years and anticipates “new roles” that will support the specialized USV lines.
“The shipyard’s location, deep expertise, and turnkey facilities are ideally suited to allow Saronic to expeditiously develop, test, and produce its first MUSV model and advance our mission to deliver the full range of ASVs needed to support the U.S. Navy’s hybrid fleet,” Saronic CEO Dino Mavrookas said in a news release.
Coinciding with the acquisition was the unveiling of the Maruader, a 150-foot-long vessel designed from the outset to be autonomous and fully unmanned. According to Saronic, Maruader can loiter for at least 30 days, travel 3,500 nautical miles and support payloads up to 40 metric tons.
The Gulf Craft yard and Maruader come ahead of Saronic’s ambitious Port Alpha plan, which would see the company invest $2.5 billion in a shipyard meant to sustain the annual production of hundreds of unmanned surface vessels and hire thousands of people. A spokesperson clarified that Saronic is actively seeking a location for Port Alpha.
“We don’t wait—we build for what our customers need, when they need it. While we actively search for a home for Port Alpha, this acquisition gives us the immediate capacity to meet urgent customer needs for larger autonomous vessels and the flexibility to scale to address emerging commercial and defense applications of these advanced systems,” Mavrookas stated in a release.
Saronic’s Maruader follows Serco’s USX-1 Defiant, an unmanned surface vessel contracted by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Unmanned surface vessels were stressed in Project 33, a war plan from former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti designed to counter China by 2027. Several drone-based initiatives, such as the Department of Defense-wide Replicator and the Navy’s Hellscape, are being developed to counter near-peer threats.
