Dino Mavrookas: America Needs to Build Ships Again
Sep 8, 2026 · 29:56
Dino Mavrookas, Co-Founder & CEO of Saronic, argues America's shipbuilding gap—China outbuilds the U.S. 230 to 1, having built over 1,000 commercial ships last year against 5—is a national security crisis only autonomy and private capital can fix. He notes the Navy's 290 ships fall short of Congress's 355 minimum and the revised 381-ship need, and explains how Saronic's Corsair, Marauder and $3 billion Port Alpha shipyard—10,000 jobs and $160 billion of impact in Brownsville—answer that. He predicts 5 to 10 new defense primes in a decade and describes a Castellan partnership to launch a hypersonic missile off an autonomous ship before the Navy can from a manned one. He also recounts founding Saronic in 2022 after leaving private equity, his wife naming it after the Battle of Salamis.
