A few coast-to-coast observations. Marin County and Washington County, Rhode Island are three thousand miles apart. They share more than they should.
Both are coastal—the Pacific here, Narragansett Bay and Block Island Sound there.
Both have towns where a wave, a nod, or a familiar license plate still means something. Both sit close enough to a major city to catch its ambition, yet far enough away to keep their own weather.
My wife and I were married on Block Island. We spent ten summers there and around South County. The pull was always there. I've kept one eye on Rhode Island ever since.
What's changed is what South County is starting to attract.
REGENT is building 12-passenger seagliders in a 255,000-square-foot factory at Quonset.
Two miles away, Anduril is building autonomous underwater systems in a 150,000-square-foot facility.
Across the bay, Vatn Systems is manufacturing autonomous underwater vehicles in Bristol.
Electric Boat's submarine work at Quonset is expanding under a new $76.6 billion Navy contract.
Individually, those are interesting announcements.
Collectively, they're something else entirely.
This isn't just defense. It isn't just maritime. It isn't just aviation.
It's the emergence of a regional capability centered on autonomy, advanced manufacturing, and vehicles that operate where traditional boundaries blur—above the water, on it, and beneath it.
Silicon Valley and Bay Area operators know what an early cluster feels like. Before everyone else sees an industry, they notice the talent, suppliers, infrastructure, and capital beginning to concentrate in one place.
The state is doing the work — a $115 million maritime bond, a governor calling REGENT and Anduril out by name. But a cluster isn't willed into being from the top.
That's what makes the next two years worth watching.