Leonardo DRS cut the ribbon on its Goose Creek plant in January. Inside, the building was still a bare warehouse, The Post and Courier reported.

The defense contractor’s naval power and propulsion plant, more than 140,000 square feet at the Bushy Park industrial complex in Berkeley County, will build and test large components for Navy submarines and ships, including the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, the company said when it opened the site Jan. 23.

The company planned to spend the rest of 2026 outfitting the building with tooling, the newspaper reported. After that, Leonardo DRS planned to build mock-ups in 2027 as equipment arrives, start testing steam turbines made at its other plants by late 2027 and turn out its first locally built turbines around 2030.

“This strategic investment is a national asset and represents our commitment to supporting the U.S. Navy’s efforts to increase production capacity across the submarine and shipbuilding industrial base,” Jon Miller, senior vice president and general manager of the company’s Naval Power Systems business, said in the announcement.

What the plant will do

Leonardo DRS, based in Arlington, Virginia, is the U.S. subsidiary of Italian defense company Leonardo S.p.A., The Post and Courier reported. It makes electric-system components for Columbia-class submarines, including the propulsion motors.

The Goose Creek plant provides manufacturing, final assembly, integration and testing space for large components of the company’s naval electric power and propulsion systems, the company said. It also supports steam turbine system design, manufacturing and testing.

The parts made and tested there will be paired with equipment from other company plants: electronics built in Wisconsin, motors from Massachusetts, control systems from Connecticut and cooling equipment from Missouri, the newspaper reported.

“This is the formal opening of our brand new facility here that will be used for building and testing submarine propulsion systems,” Miller told WCSC Live 5 at the opening.

The Navy has said it will build 12 Columbia-class submarines to replace its Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, which are reaching the end of their extended service lives.

Jobs and money

The state announced the project in February 2024, saying the company would invest about $120 million and create 58 jobs. The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved job development credits.

Once manufacturing begins, the plant will need more than 60 workers, and half are to be hired by the end of 2026, The Post and Courier reported in January. The company was hiring quality inspectors and filling technical roles at the time, the newspaper reported.

Berkeley County Supervisor Johnny Cribb said at the opening that tax revenue from the site could help pay for public safety and education. “With the tax revenue from this one site, we can hire new paramedics, two new EMS employees, new sheriff’s deputies each year,” Cribb told Live 5. “And with the money that will go to the school district from this one site, 10 new teachers this year and every year, so that is significant.”

Company leaders described the plant as a first phase, with expansion planned to add manufacturing and testing capacity, Live 5 reported.

“We’ll be building that product here in the 2040s, 2050s, and perhaps beyond,” a Leonardo DRS naval power executive said, according to Live 5. “We’re talking about jobs for generations.”

The shipbuilder next door

Leonardo DRS built its plant next to the former W International fabrication plant that HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding bought in January 2025 for $60 million, The Post and Courier reported. HII says that site is hiring hundreds of shipbuilders and will hold a skilled-trades hiring event Oct. 27 in North Charleston.

The two companies are already working together. In February 2025, Leonardo DRS said it had received a $45 million U.S. Navy submarine industrial base investment commitment through contracts with Newport News Shipbuilding, to pay for a 40,000-square-foot expansion of the Goose Creek plant along with equipment and other improvements. The company said that built on earlier Navy-funded engineering contracts from Newport News Shipbuilding and General Dynamics’ Electric Boat division. Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding are the only two U.S. shipyards that design and build nuclear-powered submarines.

Leonardo DRS CEO John Baylouny tied the plant to Washington’s push for more defense production. “The Department of War has been clear about the need to strengthen and expand the defense industrial base, and this investment answers that call,” he said in the announcement.

If the schedule holds, the first turbines built in Goose Creek would come around 2030.