Red Cat's maritime arm hits a one-year milestone in Georgia

Blue Ops, the maritime division of drone maker Red Cat Holdings, marked one year since it opened a manufacturing plant in Valdosta, Georgia, the company said. The state of Georgia recognized Sept. 21 as the inaugural Blue Ops Day in the city, according to a company statement.

Blue Ops builds uncrewed surface vessels, small autonomous boats used for military and national security missions. The company leased a 155,000-square-foot former boat factory at 601 Gil Harbin Industrial Boulevard in Valdosta, the site of an earlier Regal Boats plant, and announced the move in April with plans to invest about $30 million and create more than 200 jobs. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced the facility in April, and state officials said the company planned to hire up to 100 workers in 2026, with more roles to follow as production increased.

Blue Ops president Barry Hinckley said at the time the investment was meant to build “a modern, scalable, and domestic USV manufacturing base from the ground up.”

The company built its first prototype vessels elsewhere. Blue Ops partnered with Hodgdon Shipbuilding, a Maine boatbuilder founded in 1816, to construct its first five uncrewed surface vessel prototypes at facilities in Boothbay and Damariscotta, Maine, before shifting full-rate production to Valdosta.

In April, Blue Ops also partnered with HADDY, a robotic 3D printing company, to add large-scale 3D printing and robotic production systems to the Valdosta plant. The companies said the partnership would roughly double the facility’s manufacturing capacity by using robotic systems to build vessel hulls before workers complete final assembly.

Red Cat Holdings, based in Salt Lake City and traded on Nasdaq under the ticker RCAT, also makes small drones through its Teal Drones and FlightWave Aerospace subsidiaries. The company has positioned Blue Ops as its expansion into uncrewed maritime systems, alongside its existing air-domain drone business.

Blue Ops has not disclosed how many vessels it has built at the Valdosta facility over the past year or named specific government customers for its USV line. The company said in its anniversary statement that it intends to keep expanding production capacity at the site.

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