Fairbanks Morse Defense doubling manufacturing capacity at its Pascagoula facility
Oct 21, 2026 - Magnolia Tribune
- The $60 million expansion adds 38,000 square feet of new manufacturing space while growing the company’s workforce in Jackson County by 25%.
The only privately-owned U.S. foundry certified for large-scale Navy propeller manufacturing broke ground Tuesday on a third Center of Excellence (CoE3) at the Bird-Johnson Propeller Company facility in Pascagoula.
The new Fairbanks Morse Defense center will effectively double capacity to produce the most complex and powerful naval propulsion systems while growing its workforce by 25%, employing a total of 100 highly skilled craftspeople.
The $60 million expansion includes a $27 million U.S. Navy investment, $22 million of which is sourced from Australia’s initial contribution to the U.S. Submarine Industrial Base under the AUKUS Pillar I effort.
The new center will be operated as a Bird-Johnson Propeller Company facility under the executive leadership of Fairbanks Morse Defense. FMD acquired Bird-Johnson in July 2025 and restored the Bird-Johnson name to the foundry, honoring the company’s nearly 70-year commitment to American-made naval propellers.
The Pascagoula foundry is designated a U.S. National Asset.
“The U.S. Navy runs on Bird-Johnson propellors,” Captain Mike Hollenbach told those gathered at the groundbreaking.