Hadrian Opens Alabama Facility to Support Submarine Production

Manufacturing company Hadrian has opened a new facility in Cherokee, Alabama dedicated to the U.S. Navy's Columbia- and Virginia-class submarine programs.

Known as Factory 4, the Cherokee facility is an advanced, highly automated manufacturing plant that will mass-produce components needed for submarine construction, including parts, assemblies, and finished products.

These products have been identified by the industry as the largest drivers of submarine schedules, so increasing production allows submarines to also be produced faster.

F4 will be one of three facilities producing systems for the maritime industrial base, with one of the facilities slated to be a Foundry of the Future, focused on castings and forging.

The contract with the Navy is structured as a public-private partnership combining more than $1.5 billion in private capital with $900 million in government funding through Navy appropriations, for a total investment of more than $2.4 billion.

The Cherokee facility transforms a 2.2 million-square-foot site in The Shoals region into an advanced production hub. Formerly the largest railcar manufacturing facility in the country before production was outsourced to Mexico, this first phase of this new facility is expected to reach full-rate production capacity within 24 months of contract award. Other parts of the facility