Robot boat builder Saronic Technologies announced in July that it picked Brownsville for its Port Alpha $3.2 billion shipyard after obtaining a tax abatement deal from the local government, USNI News reported.
The 835-acre site in Cameron County is in the Port of Brownsville, which is already home to most of the United States' shipbreaking industry.
"Today marks history with the announcement of the most advanced shipyard in the entire world," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said. "When this shipyard gets fully built out, there will be about 10,000 employees. Saronic is going to be providing about $750 million in annual paychecks to Texans. That's game-changing for the population of Texas."
Saronic CEO Dino Mavrookas said the greenfield site will focus on both commercial and defense shipbuilding, USNI News reported.
Construction is slated to start before year's end, with the facility expected to be up to capacity by 2028 to build ships up to 850 ft., Mavrookas told USNI News.
"That'll just be phase one of the project," he said. "We have the ability to go up to 4,000 acres. That'll make it not only the largest shipyard in the U.S. but the largest one of the largest shipyards in the world."
The new shipyard will be Austin-based Saronic's third; it already operates a factory in central Texas that builds 25-ft. Corsair autonomous boats and runs former Gulf Craft shipyard in Franklin, La., where it builds the unmanned medium surface vessel, USNI News reported.
Mavrookas didn't detail the types of ships it would build in Brownsville, but in renderings it released, the company showed ships about the size of a San Antonio-class amphibious warship.
"What we're trying to do is not just build the same ships that we've been building, but to also incorporate the level of technology and autonomy into ships that Saronic is developing," Mavrookas said. "Those ships might not be fully autonomous or fully unmanned on day one, but over time, as we look at building out the tech and building out the industry as a whole, there's no reason that you can't unman those ships completely."
The Cameron County commissioners approved a 95 percent, 19-year tax abatement for the estimated shipyard last month.
Saronic debuted as a venture capital startup, making small autonomous boats. The Navy has bought $350 million in small vessels from Saronic, as well as its design for the medium unmanned surface vessel.
