Leonardo DRS Expands Production Capacity to Advance Naval Power, Sensors, and AI-Driven Mission Systems

April 1, 2026

Leonardo DRS has opened a new naval power and propulsion manufacturing and testing facility in Charleston, South Carolina, expanding its role in delivering next generation electric propulsion, integrated power systems, and high energy payload support for U.S. Navy surface and undersea platforms. The 140,000 square foot site consolidates advanced manufacturing, final assembly, and high fidelity testing for electric power conversion and propulsion systems, while also supporting naval steam turbine design, production, and subsystem integration for programs including the Columbia class ballistic missile submarine.

A representative for Leonardo’s Naval Power Systems business unit provided emailed statements with details about the type of advanced manufacturing the company will deploy at the new facility.

The new facility builds on DRS’s broader portfolio across Navy and maritime applications, where the company develops advanced sensors, directed energy systems, high performance computing architectures, and modular electronics for both surface combatants and submarines. The Charleston site increases production throughput using automated robotic receiving, storage, and kitting systems that tie directly into the company’s enterprise resource planning environment. Heavy lift capability is supported by a 245 ton coordinated lifting system, allowing precise rotation, alignment, and assembly of extremely large electric machine components without the need for specialized tooling.

The new Leonardo DRS Advanced Naval Power and Propulsion Facility in Charleston, South Carolina. (Image: Leonardo DRS)

Other DRS facilities bring additional automation into the manufacturing pipeline, including robotic assembly of large electric machine cores and computer controlled induction brazing to improve electrical connection repeatability and service life. Together, these investments position Leonardo DRS to meet the Navy’s rapidly increasing demand for high power weapons, energy dense sensors, integrated power architectures, and AI ready computing systems — core priorities reflected across recent Department of the Navy budget submissions and long range acquisition plans.

According to Jon Miller, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Naval Power Systems business unit, the new Charleston complex represents a “strategic national asset” designed to scale production capacity across the submarine and shipbuilding industrial base. Sized to support the complete existing Leonardo DRS Navy contract portfolio, the facility can also meet 100 percent of the Navy’s annual steam turbine production requirement if called upon.

Advanced Manufacturing for High Energy, High Power Naval Payloads

DRS engineers note that the Charleston site is equipped to support manufacturing and testing for the Navy’s next generation of high energy, high power mission payloads. These include:

High energy laser systems, with pulsed electrical loads approaching 3 MW, requiring precision power conditioning and thermal regulation.
Electromagnetic railgun technologies, dependent on extremely high, fast rise pulsed power.
High power naval radar systems, with demands reaching 10 MW in some future concepts.
Edge computing and AI processing architectures, requiring elevated cooling and power distribution resiliency.

Alongside propulsion and power conversion, the facility is configured to support future Integrated Power Systems (IPS) and hybrid electric architectures increasingly central to the Navy’s force design efforts. IPS converts all onboard energy into electrical power, enabling flexible distribution to propulsion, sensors, weapons, hotel loads, and computing. The Columbia class submarine already employs IPS, and the new DRS facility provides manufacturing headroom for even larger power demands anticipated in electric drive surface combatants such as DDG(X) and potential next generation carriers.

Leonardo DRS is also maturing the Energy Magazine (EM) concept with the U.S. Navy — a modular energy storage and power buffering system designed to protect shipboard distribution networks from the severe transients associated with high energy weapons. By isolating pulsed loads from propulsion and computing systems, Energy Magazine enables directed energy weapons, EM launchers, and future electrified payloads to operate more predictably alongside mission critical sensors and communications.

Next Generation Maritime Mission Systems and Uncrewed Capabilities

Leonardo DRS showcased a range of maritime mission technologies developed to support emerging crewed and uncrewed naval platforms at the 2026 Surface Navy Association Symposium.

A centerpiece of the exhibit was the Maritime Mission Equipment Package (M MEP) — a modular, open architecture mission system enabling rapid integration of kinetic and non kinetic effectors, software defined sensors, and multi domain communications. Scalable across small and large USVs, M MEP uses DRS’s SAGEcore mission system software to fuse data, orchestrate effects, manage autonomy packages, and interface with both shipboard and offboard networks.

DRS is also advancing kinetic and non kinetic Counter UAS and Counter USV technologies designed for uncrewed surface vessels 14 feet and larger. These configurations combine multi sensor detection, electronic warfare effects, and short range air defense weapons optimized for distributed maritime operations and low signature platforms.

A representative for Leonardo DRS further outlined the open systems architecture that the company is developing for its M-MEP.

“Our system architecture is an open and agnostic one. Our SAGEcore software permits easy integration of communication, computing, sensor and both kinetic and non kinetic effector solutions. We integrate a wide range of combat proven, mature C-UAS sensors and engagement solutions — including Technology Readiness Level 9 (TRL 9) options — to deliver integrated capabilities against the threats facing our forces,” the representative said. “We tailor the communications and interfaces to the operational concept, which can include line of sight and SATCOM connectivity, multi sensor cueing (radar plus EO-IR), and a mission software backbone that simplifies integrating new sensors and effectors as requirements evolve.”

The Leonardo DRS Maritime C-UAS USV with Mission Equipment package. (Image: Leonardo DRS)

AI Compute Integration for the Modern Fleet

A rapidly growing portion of DRS’s maritime portfolio centers on enabling AI driven processing at the tactical edge, where ships, submarines, and uncrewed systems increasingly require autonomous decision support, real time sensor fusion, and low latency targeting. The company’s new Open Modular Cabinet (OMC) system is designed specifically to meet this shift.

OMC is a ship hardened enclosure engineered to support both legacy systems and next generation heterogeneous compute environments — CPU, GPU, FPGA, and future ASIC based accelerators — within a common mechanical and electrical interface. This approach reduces integration cost and ensures long term upgradeability across multi decade platform service lives.

The cabinet incorporates:

High density power distribution modules capable of supporting next generation AI accelerators with significantly higher instantaneous draw.
Scalable rack mount compute trays compatible with Navy Open Architecture Computing Environment (OACE) standards.
High speed backplane connectivity that allows rapid sensor to processor data movement required for advanced radar, ISR, and fire control workloads.

As naval AI processing moves toward multi kilowatt, high heat density compute clusters, OMC integrates advanced thermal management subsystems including liquid assisted cooling loops, redundant forced air modules, and heat exchanger interfaces optimized for shipboard chilled water systems. This ensures stable operation of power dense compute packages even under shock, vibration, and electromagnetic constraints inherent in naval environments.

An artist rendering of the Columbia Submarine. This is one of the platforms that will receive naval steam turbine design, production, and subsystem integration from the new Leonardo DRS facility in Charleston, South Carolina. (Image: Leonardo DRS)

Across future surface combatants and USVs, AI workloads are expected to support autonomous navigation, multi sensor fusion for C UAS/C USV targeting, real time radar waveform adaptation, predictive maintenance based on distributed machinery health data, and onboard mission planning and battle management aids. OMC’s architecture is designed to host these capabilities natively, enabling continuous technology refresh as new AI processors and algorithms become available.

Taken together, the new Charleston facility, the company’s directed energy and high power system development, the Energy Magazine, and its emerging AI compute infrastructure reflect a coordinated strategy: expand national production capacity while equipping the Navy with the power, sensors, weapons, and computing required for distributed, highly electrified, and autonomy enabled maritime operations.

Leonardo DRS’s investments position the company to supply not only current Navy programs, but also the next generation of power intensive ships, uncrewed platforms, and high energy mission systems the fleet will field through the 2030s and beyond.

This article was written by Woodrow Bellamy III, Senior Editor, SAE Media Group (New York, NY).