California-based Hadrian has opened a new facility in Cherokee, in Colbert County, that will boost production of U.S. Navy nuclear submarines.
Hadrian is investing $1.5 billion and the Navy is investing $900 million to repurpose the former FreightCar America plant to make submarine components. The 2.2 million-square-foot plant will be highly automated to make components for Virginia-class attack submarines and Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. According to Hadrian, these products have been identified as the largest drivers of submarine schedules, so increasing production will allow submarines to be produced faster.
The plant is expected to provide up to 1,000 manufacturing jobs, according to the U.S. Navy.
“This is a novel transaction with Hadrian — providing the Department of the Navy downside protection and upside participation,” said U.S. Secretary of the Navy John Phelan. “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 in required. The Department of the Navy has a stake in the outcome. And American taxpayers will benefit from our success.”
The Factory 4 project is estimated to take 18-24 months from initiation to full-rate production.
The Cherokee facility is the first large-scale inland advanced manufacturing facility dedicated to the U.S. maritime industrial base. Hadrian has four facilities totaling approximately 2.85 million square feet across California, Arizona and Alabama, and is developing additional production sites covering the full suite of production, from components to complete products and assemblies.
“We call this distributed shipbuilding, and it’s a key tenet of our plan to achieve required shipbuilding production rates,” said Jason Potter, performing the duties of assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. “These factories of the future might be several states away from the yards where the ships are ultimately built, but by taking on this work, they reduce bottlenecks, having a profound effect on the speed of delivery.”
The Virginia-class and Columbia-class submarines are built in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Virginia.
The plant in the Barton Riverside Industrial Park has seen many occupants from its original owners, the railcar company National Alabama through Navistar and FreightCar America. AE Industrial Partners purchased the property in January 2026 saying it expected an aerospace tenant.
