Mavrookas: U.S. shipbuilders must design vessels using less steel to rival China
Dino Mavrookas · Is Defense the Next Trillion-Dollar Category? | a16z American Dynamism Summit · May 19, 2026 · at 1:58
Dino Mavrookas is the founder and CEO of Saronic, an autonomous naval vessel company. At the a16z American Dynamism Summit, he addresses how to bend the cost curve in defense manufacturing.
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“The only two levers you have to pull are material costs and labor costs. We're not going to buy steel cheaper than they're buying it in China. So you have to take a first principles design to the ship and just fundamentally use less steel.”
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