Virginia Beach is stepping up its pursuit of autonomous systems companies. Leveraging open-ocean Navy test infrastructure, a deep veteran workforce and a newly sharpened economic development strategy, the city aims to climb the country’s autonomy leader board and become one most capable destinations for the sector.
Maritime Autonomy Finds a Natural Home Off the Virginia Coast
At SOF Week 2026, Paige Fox, Head of Business Attraction at the City of Virginia Beach, said the push for autonomy companies to find their home there has been deliberate. Her office, which also maintains international outreach locations in both London and Madrid, traditionally focused on broad economic diversification. About a year and a half ago, the team began actively recruiting defense and autonomous systems companies, driven in part by the notable Department of War (DoW) investment dollars flowing into the area. Virginia Beach, she said, receives the highest amount of DoW spending in the Hampton Roads region. It even outpaces localities home to defense giants such as Huntington Ingalls Industries and BAE Systems.
“When we look at the full defense ecosystem, where we’ve really seen the heaviest amount of traction is within the autonomous sector,” Fox said. Courting those companies, especially maritime-focused ones, to come to the city simply made good sense.
The primary draw for unmanned surface vehicle (USV) manufacturers is access. Off the Virginia Beach coastline, the U.S. Navy operates the Autonomous Range and Targets facility, an open-ocean test bed that gives companies room to develop and validate USV technology at operational scale. Few comparable sites exist anywhere in the country.
That infrastructure has already attracted several major USV manufacturers to establish local operations. The most recent, and perhaps the most telling, is SubSea Craft, a UK-based maritime technology and defense company that develops next-generation surface, subsurface, and autonomous maritime platforms for naval operations. The company recently selected Virginia Beach as its U.S. expansion hub specifically for its proximity to military installations, maritime infrastructure, and a highly specialized technical workforce. It has already identified local defense firm Global Technical Systems as a collaboration partner on the ground.
“Virginia Beach offers an exceptional environment for a company operating at the intersection of maritime innovation and defense technology,” said SubSea Craft Chief Commercial Officer Tom Harkin. “The city’s access to maritime infrastructure, defense assets, industry expertise, and technical talent strongly aligns with our long-term vision for growth and collaboration in the United States.”
The project was supported by Virginia Beach Economic Development and the Hampton Roads Alliance, and received an Economic Development Investment Program grant from the Virginia Beach Development Authority. Additional support coordinated through the Virginia Economic Development Partnership effectively layered city and state resources behind the deal. SubSea Craft’s expansion also carries strategic weight beyond the bilateral. The company’s work aligns with AUKUS Pillar II priorities around autonomy, undersea technologies and advanced maritime capabilities. This positions the city squarely within the transatlantic defense industrial base.
Old Dominion University Opens Maritime Autonomy Test Site
On the academic side, Old Dominion University recently launched the Maritime Autonomy Systems Test Site, known as MASTS, through its Virginia Institute of Space, Light and Autonomy Hub. The facility is built as a research-to-commercialization pipeline. The university designed it to move early-stage technology from the lab toward market-ready products and support startup activity in the region.
While aerial autonomy development is more concentrated on the Hampton Roads peninsula around Newport News, Fort Monroe and NASA’s presence there, Fox noted that regional assets are effectively shared. Virginia Beach companies routinely draw on infrastructure and partnerships across city lines, which gives the broader ecosystem a reach that extends well beyond any single municipality.
Veteran Workforce Gives Virginia Beach a Structural Edge
Across Hampton Roads, approximately 14,000 service members transition out of the military each year. The region retains roughly half of them annually in the local workforce. For autonomous systems companies, particularly those building technology for defense applications, that pipeline provides immediate access to personnel with hands-on operational knowledge of the platforms and mission environments they design products to support.
The Hampton Roads Workforce Council coordinates veteran outreach and works directly with private companies to engage transitioning service members before they separate. Through the federal SkillBridge program, companies can partner with base commands to bring on transitioning personnel during their final six months of service. This creates an early hiring pipeline with minimal friction.
“It’s the veteran workforce, people who have existing relationships and knowledge about a very niche ecosystem like special forces,” Fox said. “They come with that knowledge, and it’s a huge value add.”
International Pipeline and Soft Landings Attract Foreign Investment
Virginia Beach’s two international offices in London and Madrid also give the city a direct channel into European defense and autonomy markets. A formal soft landing partnership with Norway’s Ocean Autonomy Cluster, creates a structured two-way pathway for Norwegian maritime autonomy companies entering the U.S. market. SubseaCraft’s expansion, for example, grew directly out of that international engagement pipeline.
Fox noted that many defense tech companies prefer to operate with a low profile. The city has structured its support accordingly. Businesses can access site selection guidance, executive relocation resources, workforce development coordination, and financial incentives without any requirement to go public before they’re ready.
“We want to make sure they’re aware that support resources are available through localities, whether it’s incentives or workforce development,” Fox said. “We want to help them so they don’t have to operate in the dark when they’re looking to establish facilities in Virginia Beach.”
Virginia Beach Means Business on Autonomy
Virginia Beach has assembled all the right pieces for autonomy companies: a Navy test infrastructure, stacked city and state incentives, with a veteran workforce pipeline that retains 7,000 separating service members annually, a university research-to-commercialization hub and international business development offices on two continents. Together, this reflects a region that has moved past aspiration into execution. Defense tech companies, neo-prime developers and international manufacturers looking for a U.S. base of operations, now you know about this ocean-front city which has done its homework, has resources ready and is open for business.
Companies interested in learning more can reach the Virginia Beach economic development team at yesvirginiabeach.com.