Video · 2026-08-06 · 48m · 6 moments

China Outbuilds America 230-to-1. Saronic Has a Plan

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Anecdote◆

The US Navy trusted Saronic's autonomous Corsair vessel to rescue downed American pilots in the Straits of Hormuz, proving that autonomous platforms can rescue people without putting additional soldiers in harm's way.

Saronic co-founder Dino Mavrikis recounts how the Navy deployed their autonomous Corsair vessel to rescue downed American pilots in the contested Straits of Hormuz, calling it a milestone that proves autonomous platforms can extract personnel without risking additional lives.

transcript

Dino Mavrikis: What we were able to demonstrate through this partnership with the Navy, like for us is the Navy actually trusted us in this moment. Lives are on the line. We're going to send this autonomous platform to go and rescue these folks. This is not a patrol. This is not maritime domain awareness. This is the highest stakes of the highest stakes. There's downed American pilots in the Straits of Hormuz. like Corsair, which you actually see right over my right shoulder, which is our 24 foot fully autonomous speedboat for th for those that that don't know. Um, he said, 'We're going to use that to rescue the pilots.' And that's that's actually like a milestone moment for the country. And I can tell you I'll tell you a personal story firstand kind of what this means, but you know this like leaving people behind in the US military just it's not a thing. Like the US military does not do it, right? Like I was in the Navy Seal teams for 11 years. From 2004 to 2015, uh my last five years were on SEAL team six. I personally experienced 2005 there were four SEALs trapped on a mountain side in Afghanistan and the helicopter got sh got shot down while going to rescue them. So what we were able to prove in this moment was that you can go and rescue people without putting additional soldiers in harm's way. That's that's the impact of what this had. That's what it means for the country and for our company.

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Data

China can outbuild the United States 230-to-1 in ship tonnage — 23 million gross tons annually versus 100,000 — and now holds 57% of global shipbuilding capacity, up from 5% thirty years ago, enabled by massive state subsidies.

Dino lays out the stark shipbuilding disparity: the US builds 100,000 gross tons per year, China builds 23 million; China went from 5% to 57% of global capacity in 30 years through subsidies on raw materials, labor, and direct costs, making US-built ships 5-6x more expensive.

transcript

Dino Mavrikis: The United States can build a 100,000 gross tons of ships every year. Gross ton is this volumetric measure of ship. So if you build, you know, a 200 foot ship, that's different than an 800 foot ship. But let's compare apples to apples. 100,000 gross tons. The Chinese, which you were referencing, can build 23 million gross tons. So, they can out build the US 230 to1. And it wasn't always the case. Right? 30 years ago, the Chinese didn't have this capability. They had 5% of the world's ship building capacity. Today, they have 57% of the world ship building capacity. And actually that problem's getting worse because the cons the communist party is just con constantly it's like subsidizing the entire industry. So they're undercutting the commercial market on price. They're not just subsidizing the direct cost to build. They're subsidizing raw material and labor costs. So the ship built in the United States is actually five to six times the cost of that same ship built in China. And so they keep getting more and more orders. So that number is of 57% is just going up.

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Data

The US naval fleet is shrinking — 296 ships today against a statutory minimum of 355 set in 2018 — and last year built 9 ships while retiring 19, while the Chinese fleet of ~370 vessels grows toward 450 and China delivered over 1,000 commercial ships versus America's 5.

Dino contrasts the declining US naval fleet (296 ships, building 9 but retiring 19 last year, only 5 commercial ships built) with China's growing fleet (~370, building ~30 naval vessels, over 1,000 commercial ships), warning that Chinese commercial shipyards would convert to military production in a conflict.

transcript

Dino Mavrikis: So the US naval fleet has 296 ships today. There's a congressional mandate statutory minimum of 355 ships that was set by Congress in 2018. That was 8 years ago. Last year we built nine ships, but we retired 19 naval vessels. So we're going in the wrong like the completely wrong direction. The Chinese delivered somewhere in the ballpark of 30 ships. Their fleet size is around 370. They'll be at 450 before you know it. But the commercial market is where that discrepancy lies. Even larger, right? They delivered over a thousand commercial ships last year. The United States built five. Five. 1 2 3 4 5. One hand. So if a conflict actually kicks off, and we saw this in the US in World War II where we had the production capacity where we're building thousands of vessels every year. If a conflict kicks off, that commercial capacity isn't going to go to building cargo containers anymore. It's all going to flip to defense capacity and it's going to be building for what the Chinese Communist Party needs to to win a conflict.

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Mechanism◆

Saronic's Marauder, an 180-foot fully autonomous ship, can field 320 VLS (vertical launch system) tubes per year at a fraction of the cost of a naval destroyer, which fields about 10-15 VLS tubes per year at $30 million per tube.

Dino explains the unit economics: a $3 billion destroyer takes 6-8 years to build and fields ~100 VLS tubes (~10-15/year at $30M/tube), while Saronic's Marauder carries 16 VLS tubes and they'll build 20 per year, enabling 320 VLS tubes per year at a fraction of the cost.

transcript

Dino Mavrikis: A destroyer, naval destroyer costs about $3 billion. Takes three billion three billion. And I'm not even getting into the sustainment and maintenance costs over the life cycle of the destroyer. I'm just talking about what it costs to buy. If we do that, it's 10 10 billion over 30, 40 years. $3 billion, 6 to 8 years to make. You carry you you can field about 96 VLS tubes. So, I'm going to round up. I'm going to make that 100 for easy math. So on average, you're fielding somewhere between 10 to 15 VLS tubes per year at a cost of 30 million per tube. Marauder, I won't give you the exact price or cost, but can reduce that cost by a significant amount, but we're building 20 Marauders for we're going to be building 20 marauders per year at our shipyard in Louisiana. Right? So now you can field, we can carry the equivalent of 16 VLS tubes on the back of that 180 foot fully autonomous ship. So now you can field 320 VLS tubes per year as opposed to 15. And you could do it at a fraction of the cost. This is how you actually save the taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and you get more capability into the field faster.

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Prediction

Saronic is announcing Port Alpha, an 800-acre shipyard in Brownsville, Texas — the largest shipyard in the United States — with plans to scale to 4,000 acres, invest billions, create 10,000 jobs, and bring American shipbuilding back to levels not seen since World War II.

In an exclusive announcement, Dino reveals Saronic's Port Alpha — an 800-acre shipyard in Brownsville, Texas (scalable to 4,000 acres) that will be the largest in the US, investing billions and creating 10,000 jobs to restore American shipbuilding to WWII-era capacity.

transcript

Dino Mavrikis: We've been working on Port Alpha for a long time now. So, Port Alpha, just for the listeners, is our shipyard of the future. This is going to bring American ship building back to a place that we haven't seen since World War II. Um, to be clear, we're already operating a shipyard. We have a shipyard in Franklin, Louisiana. That's where we're building Marauder. We're ramping that up to 20 Marauder. We can bring that up to 50 marauders per year, every single year. And that is a 100 acre shipyard. What we're doing at Port Alpha is 10xing that. We're looking at a shipyard that is well over a thousand acres. We've been doing this search for over a year now on what is the ideal location for this shipyard. Where are we going to find the right partner, the right land, the right workforce, the right community to be a part of? Um, and we're proud to announce that we found that in Brownsville, Texas. So, we're we're headquartered in Austin. We're going to be basing Port Alpha in Brownsville. We're going to start on a 800 acre plot of land, which in and of itself, 800 acres is now the largest shipyard in the United States. Just to give you a sense of scale, we have the opportunity over time to scale that to 4,000 acres. We're going to invest billions of dollars into this project. We're going to create 10,000 jobs over the next 10 years and we're going to bring ship building in this country back again to a place that we haven't seen since World War II.

Prediction

Saronic can cut the cost of building a ship in the United States in half — from $300 million to under $150 million — not by paying people less but by investing in product design, manufacturing processes, and new shipyards built from first principles.

Dino argues that by designing ships for manufacturability from the ground up, investing in modern shipyards, and paying workers more with equity, Saronic can halve the cost of a US-built ship to under $150 million — reversing the 5-6x cost disadvantage versus China.

transcript

Dino Mavrikis: The cost of building ships in the United States. And the United States just isn't competitive in the commercial market. And again, we can go through the specifics and what happened over time, five to six times the cost of building a ship in China. We think just by investing in product and processes and new shipyards, we can cut the cost of a ship in the United States in half. So if you have a ship that costs $300 million, we can get that under $150 million. And that's not by simply just paying people less. We're paying people more, but we're investing in our product. We're investing in the process. We're designing the product to be built that way in the first place.

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Highlight slides

Navy Trusted Autonomous Corsair for Pilot Rescue✦ from: The US Navy trusted Saronic's autonomous Corsair vessel to rescue downed American pilots in the Straits of Hormuz, proving that autonomous platforms can rescue people without putting additional soldiers in harm's way.Why This Matters: Rescue Without Risking More Lives✦ from: The US Navy trusted Saronic's autonomous Corsair vessel to rescue downed American pilots in the Straits of Hormuz, proving that autonomous platforms can rescue people without putting additional soldiers in harm's way.The VLS Fielding Gap: Destroyer vs. Marauder✦ from: Saronic's Marauder, an 180-foot fully autonomous ship, can field 320 VLS (vertical launch system) tubes per year at a fraction of the cost of a naval destroyer, which fields about 10-15 VLS tubes per year at $30 million per tube.Unit Economics & Production Scale✦ from: Saronic's Marauder, an 180-foot fully autonomous ship, can field 320 VLS (vertical launch system) tubes per year at a fraction of the cost of a naval destroyer, which fields about 10-15 VLS tubes per year at $30 million per tube.

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