Navy breaks ground in Mississippi on a $60 million submarine propeller plant, with $22 million from Australia

The U.S. Navy and its partners have broken ground on a $60 million factory expansion in Pascagoula, Mississippi, that will make propellers, propulsors and rotors for submarines, with $22 million of the cost coming from Australia’s payments into the American submarine industrial base. The Navy announced the groundbreaking on 21 October.

The project is the Bird-Johnson Propeller Company Machine Capacity Expansion, at the facility of Fairbanks Morse Defense. It will add a new 38,000-square-foot building able to produce propulsors, propellers, rotors and other critical components for several shipbuilding programmes, covering both in-service boats and new construction, according to the Navy statement.

Who is paying

The Navy is contributing $27 million through its partnership with BlueForge Alliance. Of that sum, $22 million comes from Australia’s initial contribution to the U.S. Submarine Industrial Base under Pillar I of AUKUS, the security pact linking Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, and the remaining $5 million from U.S. appropriated funds for the industrial base.

The Navy says Australia’s money is aimed at raising maintenance and production capacity so that more submarines are in the water, and at enabling the sale of Virginia-class submarines to Australia. Matt Marburger, deputy director for AUKUS and International, said Australia is contributing a total of $3 billion to the U.S. industrial base, with the first $2 billion received last year. “We are investing these funds purposefully to activate and align our industrial base to deliver the capability our submarine force requires,” he said.

What officials said

Capt. Sal Suarez, deputy programme manager for the U.S. submarine industrial base programme, said the Australian contribution adds to money provided by Congress and allows the Navy to fund projects of this kind alongside other investments for the fleet. Vice Adm. Rob Gaucher, the Navy’s director of submarine programmes, said the effort helps ensure that more submarines are ready for tasking.

Phoebe Greentree, Minister-Counsellor for AUKUS at the Australian Embassy, welcomed the investment. She said the milestone shows “the continued momentum and shared commitment of Australia and the United States” to deliver Australia’s conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability.

How the spending was chosen

The Navy’s AUKUS Integration and Acquisition office, the central programme office coordinating the U.S. contribution to AUKUS Pillar I, worked with the industrial base programme office to draw up a spending plan. According to the statement, the plan follows lines of effort identified in a 2025 industrial base investment study carried out jointly by the Navy and the Office of the Secretary of War’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office.

Representatives of Jackson County, Mississippi, the Jackson County Economic Development Foundation and the Australian Embassy joined Navy leaders and company officials at the ceremony. The Navy statement did not give a completion date for the new building or a figure for how much additional output it will deliver.