In the not-too-distant future, the Navy might be deploying fleets of unmanned ships throughout the world, and some of them might be manufactured in Louisiana.
That’s the vision of former Navy SEAL and defense technology entrepreneur Dino Mavrookas, whose Austin, Texas-based startup Saronic last week announced the acquisition of Gulf Craft, a shipyard in Franklin. Terms of the deal were not made public.
Saronic, which reports a $4 billion valuation based on potential military and commercial contracts, said it will use the 100-acre facility to produce unmanned surface vessels — essentially water drones — starting with a 150-foot autonomous surface vessel dubbed the Marauder. The company has already produced smaller autonomous vessels at its inland headquarters.
“We acquired Gulf Craft because we believe in their culture and what they’ve been able to produce to date,” Mavrookas said. “We see the value they can bring to scaling production of our autonomous surface vessels, so we’re going to invest heavily there.”
Founded by Scott Tibbs in 1965, Gulf Craft produced roughly 400 vessels over the last half century, including many crew boats that ferried workers and supplies to and from offshore oil rigs.
Mavrookas said Saronic will invest $250 million in the shipyard over the next four years, while creating 500 new jobs and producing up to 50 unmanned surface vessels annually. The first Marauders could come off the line within the next 12 months.
Among those to cheer the deal is House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Shreveport Republican who visited Saronic’s headquarters earlier this month.
Saronic CEO Dino Mavrookas
“The investment of Saronic in Louisiana’s shipbuilding industry will grow our economy, create high-quality jobs and bolster America’s maritime strength,” he said.
Mavrookas said money will be spent modernizing Gulf Craft’s infrastructure, acquiring new machinery and updating the facilities.
Saronic has retained the shipyard’s roughly 30-person workforce. In addition to hiring more shipbuilders, welders and electricians, the company plans to create jobs for engineers, technologists and naval architects, who will develop and scale production of its medium unmanned surface vessels, or MUSVs.
Mavrookas said the shipyard’s location, expertise and facilities are well suited to develop, test and produce the company’s first MUSV model, which is designed to carry weapons and other military equipment, or transport two full 40-foot shipping containers for commercial purposes.
The ship has a payload capacity of 40 metric tons and is designed to travel up to 3,500 nautical miles or stay in place for more than 30 days.
The Gulf Craft deal comes two months after Saronic closed a $600 million round of funding led by San Francisco angel investor Elad Gil.
Much of that money is earmarked to build a large shipbuilding facility that Mavrookas is calling “Port Alpha.” Saronic said the company intends to invest over $2.5 billion to develop the shipyard, which would hire thousands of people to produce hundreds of unmanned vessels annually.
While the company is searching for a location, it purchased Gulf Craft to begin production now.
Saronic’s acquisition of Gulf Craft comes as the Trump administration touts efforts to revitalize the U.S. shipbuilding industry, which requires investment in infrastructure, production models and workforce.
Mavrookas said it’s important for the U.S. to narrow the shipbuilding gap with China.
“Our whole mission is to redefine maritime superiority for the U.S. and our allies around the world, and we just made the decision very early on that we have to do that through autonomy,” he said. “Autonomy lets you strip 95% of the complexity out of the ship, and manufacture at a very high rate, so you can actually change how we do shipbuilding to regain that shipbuilding manufacturing superiority that we once had.”
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