Port primed to boost shipbuilding in U.S.

As national concerns grow over the decline of U.S. shipbuilding capacity, the Port of Brownsville continues to stand out as a vital hub for the industry.

Civilian and military experts have long warned that America’s shipbuilding output lags behind that of global competitors, particularly China. The announcement by Secretary of the Navy John Phelan canceling the Constellation-class frigate program intensified those concerns, underscoring the importance of shipbuilding centers like the Port of Brownsville that help sustain critical maritime capabilities.

"After decades of apathy and neglect, there are no easy nor cheap solutions to getting the Navy on course and in time to deter let alone persevere in a war with China," Captain Brent Sadler (U.S. Navy, Retired), senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told me via instant messaging. "Canceling the frigate program is far from adequate as it does not address the need for more shipbuilding capacity, more firepower in the western Pacific by 2027, and a needed frigate class ship to round out a perilously unbalanced fleet."

The Port of Brownsville offers opportunities and solutions to these challenges. In addition to residing in a widely recognized business- and development-friendly state, the publicly owned port—despite dating back to 1937 as a WPA Depression-recovery project—is essentially a greenfield for developing what Sadler laid out.

"There's tremendous value in a port like the Port of Brownsville,” said Port of Brownsville Port Director and CEO William Dietrich. “We’ve got a 17- mile-long channel with a lot of green space for a company to come in and, for example, we're talking about shipbuilding. It's perfect.”