The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Operations Center–Atlantic is scheduled to be fully operational at Naval Station Newport by the end of January 2027, completing a move from Norfolk, Virginia, that U.S. Sen. Jack Reed spent more than a decade working to secure.
Reed, D-R.I., toured the nearly completed $147 million waterfront complex Thursday, with most infrastructure and superstructure work finished, according to his office. The facility sits on a 5-acre site at the station.
The center coordinates NOAA’s ships operating in the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes and serves as a homeport for several of the agency’s research vessels, providing administrative, maintenance, engineering and logistical support for NOAA missions and ship operations.
“You often hear people talk about the ‘blue economy’; well this is the blue economy in action, not just words,” Reed said in a statement. “It will be a major asset for NOAA that will help further their important mission and make them more efficient, achieving cost savings for taxpayers while bringing jobs to Rhode Island.”
Roughly 60 NOAA staffers worked at the Norfolk office, with more based in that area when not at sea, according to Reed’s office. Dozens of shoreside employees will be based at the Newport facility — marine engineers, electrical technicians, budget specialists, medical support staff and human resources administrators among them — in addition to crews who serve aboard research vessels for long stretches.
When complete, the complex will include a new NOAA pier able to accommodate four large vessels, a floating dock for smaller boats, space for vessel repairs, parking and a warehouse.
Two NOAA ships are currently homeported at the station’s Pier 2: the 208-foot fisheries research vessel Henry B. Bigelow and the 224-foot Okeanos Explorer, which the agency calls “America’s ship for ocean exploration.” A third, the 208-foot hydrographic survey ship Thomas Jefferson, is slated to homeport in Newport, and a fourth — the 244-foot oceanographic research vessel Discoverer — is under construction in Louisiana.
NOAA’s fleet includes 15 vessels, operated and maintained by the agency’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations.
Separately, work is underway on a nearby $271.2 million Pier 1 at the station that will become home to several U.S. Coast Guard cutters, according to Reed’s office.
Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a member of the Appropriations Committee, has pointed to the station’s proximity to the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography as part of the case for the move. Thursday’s tour was led by Rear Adm. Chad Cary, director of the NOAA Corps and assistant administrator of OMAO, and Capt. Chad Meckley, commanding officer of MOC-A.
