Louisiana Shipyards Will Build 30 Navy Drone Ships. Here's What That Means

South Louisiana has built crew boats and offshore supply vessels for the oil and gas industry for decades. Now some of the same yards are building ships with no crew at all.

On Sept. 29, the Navy picked three companies to build 30 medium unmanned surface vessels, 10 each, and all three will build them in Louisiana, USNI News reported. "The production will begin immediately at shipyards in Loreauville, Houma, and Franklin, Louisiana," said Chris Miller, the Navy's acting portfolio manager for robotic and autonomous systems.

Who won, and where the boats get built

Source: USNI News, Sept. 29, 2026. The Navy did not disclose each company's share. It said the boats will average about $40 million per hull, which works out to roughly $1.2 billion for all 30. The money comes from the federal reconciliation law passed in 2025, and the Navy used an other transaction authority agreement, a contracting tool that lets the military buy faster than under standard procurement rules. Deliveries could start as early as the last quarter of fiscal 2027, USNI reported.

The three yards

Saronic in Franklin. Saronic, an Austin, Texas, startup, bought the Gulf Craft yard in 2025, when it had 29 employees. It had about 300 workers in Franklin as of late September and is aiming for 1,500, USNI News reported. In December 2025, the company announced a $300 million expansion with three new slips, more than 300,000 square feet of production space and a dedicated assembly line for large vessels, Naval News reported, with Louisiana Economic Development, St. Mary Parish and Gov. Jeff Landry backing the project. Its vessel is the Marauder, a 180-foot aluminum ship. Once the expansion is finished, the yard can build up to 20 Marauders a year, its shipyard director told 10/12 Industry Report.

Breaux Brothers in Loreauville. The family yard has built high-speed crew boats since the 1940s and employs about 65 people, USNI reported. It is building four of HII's ROMULUS 151 vessels, and a fifth is under construction at Halimar Shipyard in Morgan City, HII said on Sept. 8, when the first hull was structurally complete and flipped upright so deck work could begin. HII is the Virginia-based shipbuilder behind many of the Navy's carriers and submarines. "It's basically a glorified crew boat," Breaux Brothers president Brannon Breaux told USNI, describing the design. "We're building our workforce with the intent of the Navy coming and saying, 'Don't stop building.'"

Galliano Marine Service in Houma. Part of the Edison Chouest offshore group, it is the third winner. USNI's coverage gave fewer details about its design than about the other two.

The yards that didn't win this round

Seven companies made it into prototype testing in May. Six met the Navy's requirements, and the three that weren't picked for production each get $15 million and a place in the Defense Department's drone marketplace, USNI reported.

Louisiana has another contender outside this program. Conrad Shipyard, based in Morgan City, is building the Liberty, a 190-foot steel autonomous ship designed by Boston-based Blue Water Autonomy with the Dutch shipbuilder Damen. Blue Water says it paid for the ship entirely with private money, and it was slated for completion before the end of 2026, Military.com reported in February. Blue Water and another company, Saildrone, have sued the Navy over how it selected MUSV competitors, USNI reported. The Navy declined to discuss the lawsuit.

The Navy has already opened a second phase for larger boats, up to 295 feet long and able to operate for 10 days in rougher seas, with testing as early as Nov. 16, according to USNI.

Around the South: the Gulfport connection

Saronic tests its finished ships in Mississippi. In August it opened a site of more than 30,000 square feet at the Port of Gulfport for end-of-line testing, commissioning and sea trials, Naval News reported. The first Marauder arrived there in mid-July, and Marauders built in Franklin will follow the same route as production ramps up. Mississippi's congressional delegation, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, backed the move.

Why this is happening along U.S. 90

The highway runs through Houma, Morgan City, Franklin and New Iberia, past dozens of yards that grew up building workboats for the offshore oil industry. That industry's ups and downs left behind skilled welders and fabricators and waterfront sites that can build aluminum and steel hulls quickly. Shipyards in the region have also picked up other federal work this year, including Coast Guard and NOAA vessels, 10/12 Industry Report found.

The constraint is people. "The primary challenge will be filling all those positions," Christy Zeringue of the regional economic development group COLAB told 10/12 Industry Report.

What we don't know yet

• Each company's contract value. Only the average cost per hull has been released.
• How many local jobs this round adds. Saronic's 1,500 figure is a long-term goal for the whole yard, not just for these 10 boats.
• What comes after phase one. Future orders depend on testing results and on Congress continuing to fund the program.

• Maritime
• Around the South
• Lafayette