President Donald Trump announced that Cleveland has been selected as the site of a new U.S. Navy submarine component repair center, a roughly 46,000-square-foot facility meant to manufacture, repair and maintain key parts for virtually all new and existing submarines. He made the announcement during a midterm campaign stop in Youngstown, framing it as a major industrial win for Northeast Ohio even as the Navy and Pentagon had released few other details.
Trump told the crowd at the Covelli Centre that “a new facility for repairing submarine components will be coming in Cleveland,” according to Fox 8, which reported that the Department of War has “officially selected the new home of the new submarine component repair center.” The rally was held to rally support for Republican candidates Jon Husted and Vivek Ramaswamy ahead of the midterms, per the same outlet's report.
Per Inside Defense, the center will manufacture, repair and maintain key parts for virtually all new and existing submarines. The outlet also reported that the Navy and Pentagon have not yet provided additional details on the facility beyond the stated mission, leaving questions about an exact site, construction timeline, contractor and projected local jobs unanswered for now.
Husted Gets the Credit
Trump singled out Ohio's senator for pushing the project across the finish line, saying, “You have to really thank Senator Jon Husted for this probably more than anybody else,” the Fox 8 report states. In a separate social media post, Jerry Hendrix, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget's shipbuilding office, credited Husted with persuading Trump to pick Ohio for the project.
Hendrix also connected the Cleveland announcement to a broader maintenance crunch facing the submarine fleet, saying the center would help “support the submarine force's significant backlog of depot level maintenance for our fast attack boats,” according to Inside Defense. The announcement follows an August 2026 national security memorandum that directed the Secretary of War, in consultation with the Secretary of the Navy, to submit a plan within 90 days to establish a Component Repair Center, according to the White House.
A Submarine Industrial Base Under Strain
The Cleveland announcement lands amid wider concerns about the Navy's ability to build and maintain its submarine fleet. Virginia-class submarine production has been slowed to about 1.1 to 1.2 boats per year by shipyard and supplier workforce and supply-chain challenges, resulting in a growing backlog of boats that have been procured but not yet built, according to a Congressional Research Service report. A Navy shipbuilding plan released in May 2026 described a long-term demand signal intended to unleash private investment and expand manufacturing capacity, according to the same federal document.
That push has already drawn major private investment elsewhere. Defense technology company Anduril announced plans to invest $3.7 billion in a new Maryland shipyard to produce critical components for the Navy's Virginia-class submarines, paired with a Navy contract worth up to $2.9 billion to manufacture submarine parts, according to Defense News. Together, the investment and contract are valued at up to $6.6 billion, the outlet reported, and the new Baltimore County plant, dubbed Arsenal-2, is expected to be operating by the end of the decade and create 3,100 direct jobs and support more than 11,000 indirect jobs. That facility follows Anduril's $1 billion Arsenal-1 plant in Ohio, which began producing autonomous combat drones this year, per the same Defense News report.
Separate Lordstown-Lorain Proposal Still in Limbo
Separate Lordstown-Lorain Proposal The Cleveland facility is distinct from the Lordstown-Lorain Project, a proposal for a full naval shipyard in Lorain, Ohio. The proposal called for two submarine dry docks inside an enclosed production facility and would employ between 2,000 and 3,000 people, according to Fox 8's separate reporting. A related American Naval Depot proposed for Lordstown was estimated to create another 500 to 1,000 jobs. The broader project remains under development, awaiting final authorization, and a preferred primary site for the American Naval Depot in Lordstown has been targeted.
For now, the Cleveland repair center exists only as an announcement, with the Navy and Pentagon yet to confirm basic specifics such as an address, construction schedule or expected workforce. Trump's rally remarks and the limited Pentagon-adjacent confirmation reported by Inside Defense leave much of the project's shape to be filled in as federal officials release further guidance.
