Drone shipbuilder plans to hire 1,500 for its St. Mary Parish facility

By Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator.

Just months after it acquired a St. Mary Parish shipyard, a Texas company plans to increase the number of drone vessels it will build there and intends to hire 1,500 employees for the additional work, Louisiana Economic Development officials announced Wednesday.

Austin-based Saronic Technologies will spend $300 million at its facility in Franklin, where it purchased the former Gulf Craft shipyard in April. Its expansion will include three new boat slips, a larger warehouse and a new production line where it will build larger vessels.

The additional jobs announced Wednesday will have an average annual salary near $88,000, officials said.

Saronic builds vessels that operate without a crew for military and commercial purposes. The company laid the keel of its first 150-foot ship, the Marauder, in August. The shipyard workforce has increased from 35 after the April acquisition to more than 100, according to the state agency.

According to online federal contract records, the U.S. Navy agreed in May to hire Saronic to build an unspecified fleet of unmanned vessels for $392 million. The “small craft” contract calls for the work to be completed by May 30, 2031, and the Navy awarded about half that dollar amount to the company in July.

Saronic launched in 2022 and has previously worked with the Defense Department on autonomous watercraft technology. In October, the company revealed plans to mass produce a 24-foot boat called the Corsair to meet the Pentagon’s call for more unmanned resources.

Saronic has also developed 6-, 14-, 40- and 60-foot vessels.

In addition to its Louisiana shipyard, Saronic is outfitting a 420,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Austin.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.