Alabama, thank you for opening the doors of your state.

Chairmen Wicker and Rogers: your leadership and commitment to rebuilding America’s industrial strength made today possible.

Senators Tuberville, and Britt, your advocacy for Alabama’s workforce and defense industrial base has been instrumental.

Congressmen Aderholt, Kelly and Moore, each of you fought to ensure these investments became reality.

State and local leaders, thank you for being here.

Admiral Gaucher, Chris Power, and the Hadrian team, and the workers who will bring this facility to life, thank you.

You are trusted to help deliver the next chapter of American submarine construction.

It’s the honor and privilege of my lifetime to stand here as the 79th Secretary of the Navy on a pivotal day for the State of Alabama as we open this facility, a direct result of leadership at every level: federal, state, and local.

All working in alignment to deliver for the American taxpayer and, advancing the future of American industrial capacity.

President Trump’s directive is clear: Peace through strength and we are executing it.

His economic agenda focused on restoring American manufacturing, strengthening supply chains, and prioritizing domestic production —projects like this factory are not only possible, but they are also reality.

Backed by his $29.2 billion secured through the One Big Beautiful Bill, his historic defense budget, and his executive order on Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance.

He armed us with the authorities and resources, and urgency to modernize the fleet, expand our shipyards, rebuild the maritime industrial base and harden the infrastructure that wins wars at sea.

Alabama has a proud industrial legacy.

In World War II, this region helped build the Liberty ships that sustained victory across two oceans.

And like too many places in this country, the manufacturing base has atrophied, and the work once done here has moved mostly overseas.

President Trump has correctly identified this trajectory as unacceptable and is reversing it through a renewed focus on American industry and economic strength.

Today, that reversal is not just a political slogan, it is happening right here in Alabama.

This facility is coming back to life.

This is not just an investment in infrastructure, it is an investment in the American worker, in Alabama communities and in the future of America’s security.

This is how we begin restoring the industrial base.

And it returns in service of the American taxpayer and maritime dominance.

This is what the Golden Fleet looks like in execution.

The Golden Fleet is President Trump’s commitment to restore American maritime power for the 21st century.

It rests on three pillars:

Rebuild the fleet.

Revitalize the maritime industrial base.

Change how the Department of the Navy does business.

But everything depends on the second.

Because if you cannot build, you cannot field.

Pillar Two is about generational investment and building the necessary capability.

It is about rebuilding the industrial base — the infrastructure, the production lines, and the workforce — that make American naval power possible.

And it is about doing it here, in places like the Muscle Shoals, where the talent, work ethic, and the legacy already exist.

What you see here today is action.

This is not just another factory.

This is a different model.

Hadrian does not just machine parts.

They build integrated production systems, raw material in, test-ready hardware out.

A single system doing what used to require dozens of suppliers.

Their platform allows these facilities to run continuously.

It allows a workforce to reach productivity in 30 days, not years.

That is not incremental improvement.

That is a step change in how we scale production.

This facility will support both the Virginia and Columbia-class programs.

It will create more than 1,000 jobs here in Cherokee.

Hadrian’s Factory of the Future will deliver high-paying jobs and, in partnership with the Alabama Community College System and Alabama Industrial Development Training, will provide trades training and advanced upskilling in automation technologies for the workforce.

This is how we rebuild not just capacity—but capability.

And let me be clear, this wouldn’t be happening without President Trump’s leadership and Congress.

Both chambers of congress, especially all the members here today, delivered the generational investment required to rebuild our shipbuilding capacity, bring those jobs back to Alabama and put American skilled laborers back at the center of American strength.

I look forward to building on this progress together in the months ahead, because we are just getting started.

This factory is the first of three facilities designed to address the most critical bottlenecks in the maritime industrial base.

This is also a different kind of partnership.

This is novel transaction with Hadrian— providing the Department of the Navy downside protection and upside participation.

More than $1.5 billion in capital from Hadrian comes in first.

The Department of the Navy follows with a commitment of $900 million to scale up the factory, grounded in demonstrated performance and ensuring we are investing in outcomes, not promises.

Risk is shared.

Performance is required.

The Department of the Navy has a stake in the outcome.

And American taxpayers will benefit from our success.

That alignment matters.

Because we are done with a system that rewards process over delivery.

We are done with free money from the Department of the Navy.

Industry has tried to meet us before.

We have not always made it easy.

That is changing.

We are breaking down silos, simplifying how we do business, and moving acquisition to a more urgent footing — with one goal:

Putting the warfighter first.

The President directed us to move faster.

Congress has cleared a path.

The Navy has set the requirement.

And today, Hadrian is setting the foundation to deliver that capacity.

To the workers who will fill this facility:

You are not just building parts.

You are building the submarines that underpin our nuclear deterrent.

You are building the capacity that closes the gap between what the fleet needs and what we can produce.

You are building the arsenal of American seapower.

The Muscle Shoals region is building again and reclaiming its place at the center of American manufacturing strength.

Congratulations to the State of Alabama and Hadrian.

Welcome to the fight, Factory Four.

May God bless all of you, May God Bless the State of Alabama, May God bless the United States of America and May God bless the Navy and Marine Corps team that defends her.

Thank you.