History Main / MobileFactory

* ''Anime/{{Ghost in the Shell|1995}} 2: Innocence'' has a factory making [[{{Fembot}} gynoids]] based on a maritime ship for... legal reasons. [[spoiler:It also turns out that they are [[BrainUploading ghost-dubbing]] [[PoweredByAForsakenChild abducted children into their droids]], which is enough to bring down Section 9 on them.]]
* The ''Anime/{{Macross}}[=/=]Anime/{{Robotech}}'' franchise group featured a number of these. Some big enough to mass produce warships more than a mile long. The Macross itself recycles HumongousMecha.

* ''ComicBook/AlbedoErmaFelnaEDF'': The EDF's biggest capital ships are factory-carriers, part of their function is providing industry to underdeveloped planets. These factory-carriers actually end up influencing the nature of the second [=ConFed=]-ILR war. The Confederation's EDF has its own economy separate from the civilian economy while the ILR military is dependent on private industrial clans who, in turn, risk a recession unless they have a war to produce for.

* ''Fanfic/TheNextFrontier'': The AlcubierreDrive testbed ''Starfarer 1'' used to be one of these, a microgravity smelter for metal ore extracted by AsteroidMiners with a cargo mass-driver to send the refined metal back to the home planet. [[AllThereInTheManual Supplementary worldbuilding from the forum threads]] explains why the Kerbals don't move the whole asteroid; the practice was outlawed after someone got their sums wrong and nearly [[ColonyDrop hit the planet Kerbin with one]].

* ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeVIIITheLastJedi'': [[AllThereInTheManual According to source materials]], the ''Mega''-class [[TheDreadedDreadnought Star Dreadnought]] ''Supremacy'' has her own factories for building war machines, including other dreadnoughts.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': The crew uses their MatterReplicator to replace the shuttles they frequently lose. Eventually they even designed a new shuttle class.

* ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'': The Mothership was originally designed as a ColonyShip, so it actually made sense for it to be able to manufacture things, but when Kharak was destroyed it was repurposed to build warships for a guerrilla war. In later missions the Mothership builds carriers with their own factories to supplement its own. There are also mobile refineries, which extract usable elements from ore brought in by AsteroidMiners.
** In ''Homeworld II'' a new Mothership is built to defend their new homeworld from the Vaygr, PlanetLooters who have their own motherships and carriers. In some missions the homeworld warps in shipyards that can build bigger ships than the Mothership can but are less mobile on the tactical map and less armed.

* ''Videogame/StarRuler'' allows for mobile shipyards to be built. By [[DesignItYourselfEquipment designing a ship]] with a mining laser, storage, refineries, and a construction bay, and they will be able to [[AsteroidMiners mine asteroids]] to produce the material for its ships. It's easy to create [[RecursiveCreators Von Neumann ships]] using this - order a ship to mine an asteroid, with 10 ships in its build queue. Keep repeating the order with every ship it builds, and after an hour there will be several hundred ships.

* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIIIReignOfChaos'': One of the Night Elf faction's gimmicks is that the majority of their unit-producing structures are {{Treants}} that can use the "Uproot" command to get up and ponderously walk around. They can't perform their unit-producing role in this mode, but it helps a Night Elf player relocate if necessary, and it lets the Ancients fight in close combat too.
* Creator/WestwoodStudios: A staple of the RealTimeStrategy games is the Mobile Construction Vehicle, a big lumbering ground unit that can deploy into a Construction Yard capable of building an entire military installation from scratch. It was first introduced in ''VideoGame/DuneII'' before being imported to their ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' series.

* ''VideoGame/X3TerranConflict'': The ''Xtended Terran Conflict'' mod has the T0 Mobile Production Ship(s). There are 5 variants of it, each of which produces a different type of ware; energy cells, food, technology (microchips, drones, etc), ore / silicon refinement, and military tech production (weapons, shields, missiles). All the of the ships are highly modular and can be configured to make different types of wares in seconds. The [=M7C=] carrier frigates could mass-produce advanced {{Attack Drone}}s on command; they were [[EasyLogistics automatically repaired on-board and came pre-equipped with weapons]], making them popular for patrols versus the logistical nightmare of full-sized carriers. They [[AscendedFanon return as official ships]] in ''X3: Albion Prelude'', albeit functioning as standard mini-carriers rather than as mobile {{Mook Maker}}s

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'': The base of operations for King K. Rool houses a BFG and produces its own mooks in its bottom.

* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWarsDaysOfRuin'': The only way to employ Seaplanes is to construct them in Carriers.

* ''VideoGame/Jak3Wastelander'': The KG War Factory endlessly produces robots of the former Krimzon Guard. Granted, why they didn't use this machine in the previous game to put the whole city on lockdown while trying to take out the Underground when they were finally making a real impact, is completely unknown.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' has what is called "minifacturing", a generic term for all manner of miniaturized computer-driven manufacturing devices. They are similar in concept to a modern 3D printer, but capable of vastly more fine and complicated construction. These are relatively ubiquitous in the setting, the widespread technology making old factory construction models economically obsolete for making small, commonly used objects, leading to a distributed manufacturing economy instead. Most objects that are capable of being manufactured are sold as licenses with "Fabrication Rights Management" limitations on how many can be created from a given license purchase. Fitting with the "mobile" part of this trope, most interstellar ships will have mini-fabricators on board for producing replacement parts, or in the case of military vessels, weaponry and armor. Going even smaller and more mobile, Omni-tools are a variation on this, being {{Super Wrist Gadget}}s with built in mini-fabricators which can forge any number of small objects and shapes. This is primarily used for things like field repairing equipment, but with the right software it also makes an effective EmergencyWeapon by flash-forging a [[BreakableWeapons one-use]] BladeBelowTheShoulder.

* ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'': most large Terran buildings are able to lift off and land elsewhere, though add-ons are immobile and detach if they do so (and can reattach). Protoss carriers are also capable to manufacturing [[AttackDrone interceptors]].

** In the prequel ''VideoGame/HomeworldDesertsOfKharak'' carriers have production facilities that can construct new [=LAVs=] and aircraft from salvage. One might understand why the Northern Coalition would want a mobile airstrip for their desert expedition/military campaign, but why couldn't they just airdrop supplies and reinforcements to them?

* The Raflessia in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91'' could make Bugs, which were tiny chainsaw drones.
* The [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Chouginga Dai-Gurren]] has the production facilities and raw materials to build several dozen city-sized [[HumongousMecha giant robots]] in a matter of days.

* [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast World Devastators]] from ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire''. They land on a planet and start ripping up the environment with tractor beams, processing the raw material into automated fighters and other collection craft, both destroying and building at the same time. Given enough time and a planet with the right minerals, they can even manufacture ''more World Devastators''.
* In ''ComicBook/AlbedoErmaFelnaEDF'' the EDF's biggest capital ships are factory-carriers, part of their function is providing industry to underdeveloped planets.
** These factory-carriers actually end up influencing the nature of the second [=ConFed=]-ILR war. The Confederation's EDF has its own economy separate from the civilian economy while the ILR military is dependent on private industrial clans who, in turn, risk a recession unless they have a war to produce for.

* ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]''[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, takes what appears to be MatterReplicator technology to its logical conclusion: anything that can both mount this ability and move becomes a mobile factory. Combine [[Franchise/StarWars World Devastator]]-like weapon loads with energy-to-matter and you have one hell of a construction system. Large (multi-kilometer) versions of the MatterReplicator also exist in corporate service for [[RidiculouslyFastConstruction producing ships]].
* AlcubierreDrive testbed ''Starfarer 1'' from ''Fanfic/TheNextFrontier'' used to be one of these, a microgravity smelter for metal ore extracted by AsteroidMiners with a cargo mass-driver to send the refined metal back to the home planet. [[AllThereInTheManual Supplementary worldbuilding from the forum threads]] explains why the Kerbals don't move the whole asteroid; the practice was outlawed after someone got their sums wrong and nearly [[ColonyDrop hit the planet Kerbin with one]].

[[folder:Film]]
* The Leveler machine in ''WesternAnimation/FernGullyTheLastRainforest'' is essentially a mobile lumber mill that processes trees on-site.
* [[AllThereInTheManual According to source materials]], the ''Mega''-class [[TheDreadedDreadnought Star Dreadnought]] ''Supremacy'' from ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/TheLastJedi'' has her own factories for building war machines, including other dreadnoughts.

* In ''Literature/{{Dune}}'', harvester factories sucked up spice-laden sands, separated out the spice with a centrifuge and store it. It's also depicted in the [[Film/Dune1984 1984 film adaptation]]. There is a practical reason to justify this complexity though: spice is only found where the infamous Arrakis {{Sandworm}}s travel, and any worm which senses motion in its territory will move to attack it. Hence, the harvesters need to be mobile so they can be lifted off to safety with their very valuable haul at the first indication of {{Wormsign}}.
* Steward Cowley's ''Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 A.D.''. The [=PC1=] 191 Gourmet was a giant insect-like spaceship that melted asteroid ore and separated out the metal residue for storage. The [=AC3=] Stag Beetle used a "disassembler" field to do the same thing.
* In the [[Literature/TheCulture Culture]] novels the largest spacecraft, called General Systems Vehicles, are capable of building entire fleets of starships inside themselves if they're so inclined. In fact it's said that a single GSV would be able to [[FromASingleCell rebuild the entire Culture]] by itself if necessary.
* The [[ComicBook/DarkEmpire World Devastators]] from ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' not only did this, but ate the planets they were attacking, then refined the raw materials. If given enough time, a fleet of World Devastators could consume the entirety of a planet and convert it into new war machines. Including ''more World Devastators''.
** EVS Construction Droids are walking factories that tear apart buildings on one end and reassemble them at the other. They're not strictly military, though there's that one time [[Literature/XWingSeries Rogue Squadron]] hijacked one and went on a {{Kaiju}}-style rampage to evacuate a section of an enemy city before it could be {{Kill Sat}}ted. But that definitely wasn't the intended purpose.
* The Fast Fleet Auxiliaries in ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' are starship sized machine shops that exist to create fuel cells, munitions, and spare parts for the warships that escort them. Keeping them protected and supplied with raw materials is a perennial problem for the fleet, as without them they can't possibly make it back home.

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'': A number of ships in this series qualify, either as a facet of being a MilitaryMashupMachine (Galactica has its own on-board munitions factory, while Pegasus goes one better and has the capacity to build entire Vipers), or in a more direct fashion (the Tylium mining ships presumably refining what they extract, the cylon resurrection ships and the Resurrection Hub presumably replenishing their stocks of the various models as required, etc.)
* The Sand Miner from the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E5TheRobotsOfDeath The Robots of Death]]".
* ''Series/RedDwarf'' is a mining ship, although it's not usually seen doing any actual mining.
** The ramscoop at the front collects all the hydrogen it needs for fuel, and considering the disaster there's no real reason for them to care if they have a full load of ore or not.
* The [[Series/{{Andromeda}} Andromeda Ascendant]] is capable of harvesting raw resources from asteroids and rebuilding her supply of [[AttackDrone drones]] and missiles.
* The seed ships in ''Series/StargateUniverse'' travel the universe building Stargates and placing them on habitable worlds
* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' crew used their MatterReplicator to replace the shuttles they frequently lost. Eventually they even designed a new shuttle class.

* In Palladium Games' ''{{Anime/Robotech}} II: The Sentinels'' RPG, the SDF-3 is noted to have a complete mecha factory located deep in it's bowels.
* One race in ''TabletopGame/TwilightImperium'' is able to move their shipyards, and in fact starts with three of them in their home system.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' ships with fuel processors can refine raw gas giant atmosphere into usable fuel, while ships (manned or unmanned) with mining equipment harvest and process ore from asteroids. One can even put full-fledged factory systems on ships, and some colony ships do so, though factories work better when permanently stationed on or in orbit of suitable worlds.
* In ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'' any ship with omni-slots can be equipped with a lv. 1 manufacturing center. Big enough to craft most personal gear. There are also Geomats, battleship-sized resource extraction complexes combined with mobile factories, capable of printing entire cities as they go.

** The ''Literature/ForgesOfMars'' trilogy of novels prominently features the ''Speranza'', a ''continent-sized'' Ark Mechanicus from the Dark Age of Technology. The mere act of launching it into space from the surface of its Magos' forge world crippled said forge world beyond repair, and the vessel is so mind-bogglingly advanced that its ability to supply whole armies with weapons, ammunition and armored vehicles from its internal factories becomes a minor sidenote at best.
** For the sake of completeness, [[SpaceElves Eldar]] [[PlanetSpaceship Craftworlds]] certainly count, with most being at least moon-sized and housing everything that's required to supply an entire civilization including their fleets and armies.

* Aircraft carriers in many RealTimeStrategy games usually operate like this.
* The only way to employ Seaplanes in ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars: Days of Ruin'' is to construct them in Carriers.
* The classic PC RPG ''Albion'' contains a partial example; the starship you start out on is a mining-ship, designed for strip-mining an entirely planet - but it's not as mobile as it seems. By design, it's supposed to simply fly to its destination, land, and then convert itself into a self-perpetuating factory-complex capable of turning an entire, resource-rich world into a dry ball of slag, while shipping the finished and refined resources home to Earth.
* The Recycler in both of the ''VideoGame/{{Battlezone|1998}}'' RTS + FPS games is a floating (or tracked, in the sequel) mobile factory. In the first game, it will land on a geyser, and unfold its construction bay, allowing it to build units - the more advanced Factory and Armory mobile factories are built from the Recycler. If the base is attacked, the factories can pack up, lift off, and drive away. ''Battlezone 2'''s Recycler is less mobile, as once it deploys, it cannot be undeployed (in the vanilla game - some mods allow it to undeploy).
* A staple of Creator/WestwoodStudios' RealTimeStrategy games is the Mobile Construction Vehicle, a big lumbering ground unit that can deploy into a Construction Yard capable of building an entire military installation from scratch. It was first introduced in ''VideoGame/DuneII'' before being imported to their ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' series.
** The ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun Tiberian Sun: Firestorm]]'' expansion added a Mobile War Factory to both factions, which comboed dangerously with the Brotherhood of Nod's [[InvisibilityCloak Mobile Stealth Generator]].
** ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2 Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge]]'' added Mobile Refineries for Yuri's faction.
** The expansion pack to ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars Tiberium Wars]]'' also introduces the [[TankGoodness MARV]] (Mammoth Armed Reclamation Vehicle). Besides being a humongous tank that puts even the legendary Mammoth Tank to shame, it can also instantly refine any Tiberium it drives over into cash.
** This was finally taken to a conclusion in ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianTwilight Tiberian Twilight]]'', where the entire base became a mobile factory.

* The base of operations for King K Rool in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'' houses a BFG and produces its own mooks in its bottom.

* ''The Hand of Rhuk'', the Beta's Epic Unit from ''VideoGame/GreyGoo2015'' is a vehicle that can produce any other land unit (including, inexplicably, Commando footsoldiers). This is useful for stocking up its hardpoints, and in one mission, supplying your cramped and teeny base with hardware. While the Grey Goo itself splits off combat units from a "mother blob" that migrates from resource deposit to deposit.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' the Mothership was originally designed as a ColonyShip, so it actually made sense for it to be able to manufacture things, but when Kharak was destroyed it was repurposed to build warships for a guerrilla war. In later missions the Mothership builds carriers with their own factories to supplement its own. There are also mobile refineries, which extract usable elements from ore brought in by AsteroidMiners.

* The carrier ''Antaeus'' in ''VideoGame/HostileWatersAntaeusRising'' has a large number of nanobots that can create a helicopter, tank, or a few similar things in about a second. You can only have a dozen or so tanks/helicopters/whatever active at a time but when you lose one you can replace it very quickly. There was originally a whole series of these carriers, but all but two were destroyed years ago, and two were deliberately sunk to the bottom of the ocean, just in case they were needed. When the activation signal came, only the lead ship ''Antaeus'' responded.
* One never-ending source of Mooks in ''VideoGame/Jak3Wastelander'' is the KG War Factory, endlessly producing robots of the former Krimzon Guard. Granted, why they didn't use this machine in the previous game to put the whole city on lockdown while trying to take out the Underground when they were finally making a real impact, is completely unknown.
* The ''Franchise/MassEffect'' franchise has what is called "minifacturing", a generic term for all manner of miniaturized computer-driven manufacturing devices. They are similar in concept to a modern 3D printer, but capable of vastly more fine and complicated construction. These are relatively ubiquitous in the setting, the widespread technology making old factory construction models economically obsolete for making small, commonly used objects, leading to a distributed manufacturing economy instead. Most objects that are capable of being manufactured are sold as licenses with "Fabrication Rights Management" limitations on how many can be created from a given license purchase. Fitting with the "mobile" part of this trope, most interstellar ships will have mini-fabricators on board for producing replacement parts, or in the case of military vessels, weaponry and armor. Going even smaller and more mobile, Omni-tools are a variation on this, being {{Super Wrist Gadget}}s with built in mini-fabricators which can forge any number of small objects and shapes. This is primarily used for things like field repairing equipment, but with the right software it also makes an effective EmergencyWeapon by flash-forging a [[BreakableWeapons one-use]] BladeBelowTheShoulder.
* In ''VideoGame/SinsOfASolarEmpire'' capital ships can produce [[SpaceFighter strikecraft]].
* ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'': the Flying Battery Zone
* The ''VideoGame/SpaceEmpires'' series lets you build these eventually, though your mobile shipyards will never build as quickly as your planets (and especially your {{Dyson Sphere}}s) do.

* ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'''s Fatboy is able to construct military units as well. (For those keeping score, that makes the Fatboy a Submersible Land Battleship Carrier (it has a landing pad) that can construct its own support force. ''And'' it mounts heavy-duty shield generators. Though it's so enormous it occupies most of the shielded area, leaving little room for its support force.) The Fatboy can also construct builder units, which can build more Fatboys. [[AvertedTrope Very]] [[RidiculouslyFastConstruction slowly]].
** As well as all of its carriers building aircraft, ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'' also has: the Tempest, a Submersible Battleship that constructs smaller ships, although it can't travel on land; the Cybran Megalith, a [[SpiderTank Spider Tank]] that can build select Cybran land units, and the Aeon Czar, which is a ''flying'' mobile factory and AirborneAircraftCarrier armed with a WaveMotionGun, flak cannons, AAM, and depth charges.
* In ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'', one of the Night Elf faction's gimmicks is that the majority of their unit-producing structures are {{Treants}} that can use the "Uproot" command to get up and ponderously walk around. They can't perform their unit-producing role in this mode, but it helps a Night Elf player relocate if necessary, and it lets the Ancients fight in close combat too.
* The ''Xtended Terran Conflict'' mod for ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Terran Conflict]]'' has the T0 Mobile Production Ship(s). There are 5 variants of it, each of which produces a different type of ware; energy cells, food, technology (microchips, drones, etc), ore / silicon refinement, and military tech production (weapons, shields, missiles). All the of the ships are highly modular and can be configured to make different types of wares in seconds. The [=M7C=] carrier frigates could mass-produce advanced {{Attack Drone}}s on command; they were [[EasyLogistics automatically repaired on-board and came pre-equipped with weapons]], making them popular for patrols versus the logistical nightmare of full-sized carriers. They [[AscendedFanon return as official ships]] in ''X3: Albion Prelude'', albeit functioning as standard mini-carriers rather than as mobile {{Mook Maker}}s

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' most large warships have "fabbers" capable of manufacturing anything from ammo to {{Drop Ship}}s. Tagon's Toughs seemed to alternate between ships that don't and do have fabbers until they got a small fleet in Book 15. The ''Post-Dated Check Loan'' and ''Touch-And-Go'' had fabbers; the ''Kitesfear'', ''Serial Peacemaker'' (originally one of the PDCL/Petey's dropships), and ''Bristlecone'' didn't. By Book 19 their PoweredArmor has integral fabbers that can rebuild themselves into small spaceships given time and material.

* In ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'' any ship with omni-slots can be equipped with a lv. 1 manufacturing center. Big enough to craft most personal gear.

* [[AllThereInTheManual According to source materials]], the ''Mega''-class [[TheDreadedDreadnought Star Dreadnought]] ''Supremacy'' from ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/TheLastJedi'' has her own factories for building war machines, [[UpToEleven including other dreadnoughts]].

-> A place of building, the act of creation forging ect. A place where raw materials enter and exit as a finished product (or in a more modern sense a component for another "finished" product).

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShell 2: Innocence'' has a factory making gynoids based on a maritime ship for... legal reasons. [[spoiler: It also turned out they were ghost-dubbing abducted children into their droids, which was enough to bring down Section 9 on them]]

* ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]''[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, takes what appears to be MatterReplicator technology to its logical conclusion: anything that can both mount this ability and move becomes a mobile factory. Combine [[StarWars World Devastator]]-like weapon loads with energy-to-matter and you have one hell of a construction system. Large (multi-kilometer) versions of the MatterReplicator also exist in corporate service for [[RidiculouslyFastConstruction producing ships]].

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' ships with fuel processors can refine raw gas giant atmosphere into usable fuel. While mining drones harvest and process ore from asteroids.

* The U.S. Army is deploying [[http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-08/army-sends-shipping-containers-mobile-3-d-printing-labs-afghanistan?cmpid=mobify mobile 3D printing labs]] to Afghanistan for fabricating equipment.

* ''[[FanFic/SovereignGFCOrigins Origins]]'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]''[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, takes what appears to be MatterReplicator technology to its logical conclusion: anything that can both mount this ability and move becomes a mobile factory. Combine [[StarWars World Devastator]]-like weapon loads with energy-to-matter and you have one hell of a construction system. Large (multi-kilometer) versions of the MatterReplicator also exist in corporate service for [[RidiculouslyFastConstruction producing ships]].

* In ''Literature/{{Dune}}'', harvester factories sucked up spice-laden sands, separated out the spice with a centrifuge and store it. It's also depicted in the [[Film/{{Dune}} film adaptation]]. There is a practical reason to justify this complexity though: spice is only found where the infamous Arrakis {{Sandworm}}s travel, and any worm which senses motion in its territory will move to attack it. Hence, the harvesters need to be mobile so they can be lifted off to safety with their very valuable haul at the first indication of {{Wormsign}}.

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'': The "Federations" DLC introduces Juggernauts, massive ships even bigger than the [[SequelEscalation previous DLC's Titans]] with two {{Wave Motion Gun}}s, [[TheBattlestar hangar bays]], and a pair of shipyards that can build smaller ships.

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' most large warships have "fabbers" capable of manufacturing anything from ammo to {{Drop Ship}}s. Tagon's Toughs seem to alternate between ships that don't and do have fabbers. The ''Post-Dated Check Loan'' and ''Touch-And-Go'' had fabbers; the ''Kitesfear'', ''Serial Peacemaker'' (originally one of Petey's dropships), and ''Cindercone'' didn't.

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'': the Tylium refining ship
** A number of ships in this series qualify, either as a facet of being a MilitaryMashupMachine (Galactica has its own on-board munitions factory, while Pegasus goes one better and has the capacity to build entire Vipers), or in a more direct fashion (the mining ships presumably refining what they extract, the cylon resurrection ships and the Resurrection Hub presumably replenishing their stocks of the various models as required, etc.)

** In ''VideoGame/HomeworldDesertsOfKharak'' carriers have production facilities that can construct new [=LAVs=] and aircraft from salvage. Once might understand why the Northern Coalition would want a mobile airstrip for their desert expedition/military campaign, but why couldn't they just airdrop supplies and reinforcements to them?

* [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast World Devastators]] from ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire''. They land on a planet and start ripping up the environment with tractor beams, processing the raw material into automated fighters and other collection craft, both destroying and building at the same time.

* The Soviet retreat behind the Urals in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the largest industrial migration in history, is about as close as we have ever come to this trope in real life. Entire factories were literally uprooted, stuck on railway cars and sent East.

[[folder: {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[folder: Film]]

[[folder:Live Action Television]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* This is basically what factory ships are. They serve as bases for whole fleets of smaller fishing boats that deliver their catches to the factory ship to be processed and frozen on board, then transported to shore to be sold.
* Russia is developing Nuclear Power Station Barges for heat, power, and/or desalination. Assuming that electricity and fresh water count for factory production.
* Relief vessels often have enlarged fresh water production facilities and kitchens. Some of the more sophisticated ones have machine shops and even medicine production facilities.
* The Soviet retreat behind the Urals in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the largest industrial migration in history, is about as close as we have ever come to this trope in real life. Entire factories were literally uprooted, stuck on railway cars and sent East.
* The U.S. Army is deploying [[http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-08/army-sends-shipping-containers-mobile-3-d-printing-labs-afghanistan?cmpid=mobify mobile 3D printing labs]] to Afghanistan for fabricating equipment.
* German Type XIV U-boats were designed to function as mobile resupply depots for other U-boats, and carried a huge cargo hold of preserved foods, fuel, and munitions. The ships were also equipped with ''bakeries'' to give docked U-boats fresh bread made on-site; a great morale boost for crews stuck eating nothing but canned food for weeks or months at a time.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop RPG]]

* The ''VideoGame/SpaceEmpires'' series lets you build these eventually, though your mobile shipyards will never build as quickly as your planets (and especially your {{Dyson Sphere}}s) do.
* ''Videogame/StarRuler'' allows for mobile shipyards to be built. By [[DesignItYourselfEquipment designing a ship]] with a mining laser, storage, refineries, and a construction bay, and they will be able to [[AsteroidMiners mine asteroids]] to produce the material for its ships. It's easy to create [[RecursiveCreators Von Neumann ships]] using this - order a ship to mine an asteroid, with 10 ships in its build queue. Keep repeating the order with every ship it builds, and after an hour there will be several hundred ships.
* The Recycler in both of the ''VideoGame/{{Battlezone|1998}}'' RTS + FPS games is a floating (or tracked, in the sequel) mobile factory. In the first game, it will land on a geyser, and unfold its construction bay, allowing it to build units - the more advanced Factory and Armory mobile factories are built from the Recycler. If the base is attacked, the factories can pack up, lift off, and drive away. ''Battlezone 2'''s Recycler is less mobile, as once it deploys, it cannot be undeployed (in the vanilla game - some mods allow it to undeploy).

* The Mobile Construction Vehicle from ''VideoGame/DuneII'' was imported to the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' series. The ExpansionPack for the second game also added a Mobile War Factory to both factions. This was finally taken to a conclusion in Command & Conquer IV, where the entire base became a mobile factory.
** The expansion pack to ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2 Red Alert 2]]'' (which, due to the Red Alert series' origin as a prequel/spin-off to the Tiberian series, also had Mobile Construction Vehicles) brought in Mobile Refineries for the new faction.
** The expansion pack to ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars Tiberium Wars]]'' also introduces the [[TankGoodness MARV]] (Mammoth Armed Reclamation Vehicle). Besides being a humongous tank that puts even the legendary Mammoth tank to shame, it can also instantly refine any tiberium it drives over into cash.
* ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'': most large Terran buildings are able to lift off and land elsewhere, though add-ons are immobile and detach if they do so (and can reattach). Protoss carriers are also capable to manufacturing [[AttackDrone interceptors]].

** In ''VideoGame/HomeworldDesertsOfKharak'' carriers have production facilities that can construct new LAVs and aircraft from salvage. Once might understand why the Northern Coalition would want a mobile airstrip for their desert expedition/military campaign, but why couldn't they just airdrop supplies and reinforcements to them?

* ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'''s Fatboy is able to construct military units as well. (For those keeping score, that makes the Fatboy a Submersible Land Battleship Carrier (it has a landing pad) that can construct its own support force. ''And'' it mounts heavy-duty shield generators. Though it's so enormous it occupies most of the shielded area, leaving little room for its support force.)
*** The Fatboy can also construct builder units, which can build more Fatboys. [[AvertedTrope Very]] [[RidiculouslyFastConstruction slowly]].

* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' has the Necron Monolith. It's slow, but well armed, very tough, and capable of building every other Necron unit in the game.

* The ''Franchise/MassEffect'' franchise has what is called "minifacturing", a generic term for all manner of miniaturized computer-driven manufacturing devices. They are similar in concept to a modern 3D printer, but capable of vastly more fine and complicated construction. These are relatively ubiquitous in the setting, the widespread technology making old factory construction models economically obsolete for making small, commonly used objects, leading to a distributed manufacturing economy instead. Most objects that are capable of being manufactured are sold as licenses with "Fabrication Rights Management" limitations on how many can be created from a given license purchase. Fitting with the "mobile" part of this trope, most interstellar ships will have mini-fabricators on board for producing replacement parts, or in the case of military vessels, weaponry and armor. Going even smaller and more mobile, Omni-tools are a variation on this, being {{Super Wrist Gadget}}s with built in mini-fabricators which can forge any number of small objects and shapes. This is primarily used for things like field repairing equipment, but with the right software it also makes an effective EmergencyWeapon by flash-forging a [[BreakableWeapons one-use]] BladeBelowTheShoulder.
* In ''VideoGame/SinsOfASolarEmpire'' capital ships can produce [[SpaceFighter strikecraft]].
* ''VideoGame/FromTheDepths'': Unless designed otherwise nearly all factory type designs are a type of moving vehicle. This also a common option for capturing territory in the campaign mode. Clear the area then send in a mobile factory to build up a base and some defenses.
* ''The Hand of Rhuk'', the Beta's Epic Unit from ''VideoGame/GreyGoo2015'' is a vehicle that can produce any other land unit (including, inexplicably, Commando footsoldiers). This is useful for stocking up its hardpoints, and in one mission, supplying your cramped and teeny base with hardware. While the Grey Goo itself splits off combat units from a "mother blob" that migrates from resource deposit to deposit.
* The base of operations for King K Rool in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'' houses a BFG and produces its own mooks in its bottom.
* The carrier ''Antaeus'' in ''VideoGame/HostileWatersAntaeusRising'' has a large number of nanobots that can create a helicopter, tank, or a few similar things in about a second. You can only have a dozen or so tanks/helicopters/whatever active at a time but when you lose one you can replace it very quickly. There was originally a whole series of these carriers, but all but two were destroyed years ago, and two were deliberately sunk to the bottom of the ocean, just in case they were needed. When the activation signal came, only the lead ship ''Antaeus'' responded.
* One never-ending source of Mooks in ''Jak 3'' is the KG War Factory, endlessly producing robots of the former Krimzon Guard. Granted, why they didn't use this machine in the previous game to put the whole city on lockdown while trying to take out the Underground when they were finally making a real impact, is completely unknown.
* The only way to employ Seaplanes in ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars: Days of Ruin'' is to construct them in Carriers.
* ''VideoGame/HaloWars'' has the Elephant, which is a mobile barracks.
* The majority of Night Elf buildings in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' are mobile, and while they can't perform their primary function while moving, they ''can'' fight.

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