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The United States will build warships abroad
Author:Mariusz Dasiewicz
The United States can reach for foreign shipyards to quickly acquire new warships for its fleet. Donald Trump signed a memorandum that allows the Pentagon to prepare such an order model, with the first units being formed outside the US, and a further part of the series already in American betting.
In the article
This is the direction I wrote on our Shipyard portal. As early as February, I described discussions on the possible use of Turkish shipyards and the parallel entry of South Korean companies into the US ship industry. In June, the topic was much more specific as Congress tried to block the financing of warships built outside the United States. So what was considered in Washington a few months ago was today in an official document signed by the President of the United States.
The memorandum of 13 August begins with a diagnosis that does not sound good to the American shipbuilding industry. The White House points to increasing costs, delays and problems resulting from continuous design changes, as well as too few shipyards capable of executing orders from the US Navy. According to the administration, there are currently six major ship building programs.
The first two ships may rise outside the US
The solution is to apply on a larger scale the model used earlier in the acquisition of icebreakers in cooperation with Finland. A foreign shipyard could build the first two units, but at the same time it would have to invest in the United States, either by building a new plant or by taking majority shares in the already existing shipyard. All subsequent ships of a given series would be built in the United States.
The conditions go further. Foreign the shipbuilding company would hire and train American workers, hand over its technologies and construction methods, and create a supply chain in the United States for both production and subsequent maintenance of ships. In this way Washington wants to exploit the opportunities of foreign shipyards, while not giving up rebuilding its own industrial base.
The memorandum allows to use such a model for up to three classes of units. The most interesting record concerns a new submarine to be able to combat submarines and submarine targets and escort convoys. The document does not call it a frigate, but the description of the required tasks is the closest to this class. The Pentagon is expected to present a plan to get it within 90 days.
Ready design instead of another multi-annual reconstruction
Equally important is the record of the project itself. US Navy it will not be able to change the selected foreign structure freely, and any major deviation from the mature base project is to require approval at a high level of administration.
It is not difficult to see the experience of recent U.S. ship programs, where further requirements introduced after the design was selected led to increased costs and longer schedules. This time the assumption is simpler: if the Americans decide to take a foreign project, they want to start building it as quickly as possible, instead of re-designing a large part of the ship according to their own requirements.
It is not yet known which shipyard could benefit from a new solution. The Pentagon's earlier work focused primarily on South Korea and Japan, where the shipbuilding industry has the capacity to carry out the series construction of large ships at a rate that US plants have not been able to achieve for years. In the budget for the financial year 2027, the Pentagon predicted $1.85 billion for activities related to the use of foreign projects and shipyards.
Congress hasn't said the last word yet.
However, signing the memorandum does not mean that the contract for the first ship will now be automatically directed to the shipyard in South Koreaj, Japan or any other allied state. American legislation still generally requires the construction of warships in the country, although the President may apply an exception justified by national security. Congress must be informed of such a decision and the contract cannot be concluded for another 30 days.
This is where the political dispute begins, which I also described on the Shipyard Portal earlier. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have come up with proposals to limit the financing of warships outside the United States. Against such orders are also representatives of the American shipbuilding industry, arguing that every hull built abroad means work that does not go to domestic plants.
For the US Navy, however, the problem remains very specific. The fleet needs new ships faster than the current industry can deliver them, while rebuilding the shipyard, training thousands of new workers and increasing the capacity of the entire supply chain will take years. Foreign shipyards are to help fill this period and later some of their experience, technology and capital are to be transferred to the United States.
This is a fundamental difference from the discussion that took place at the beginning of the year. At the time, the question was whether Americans would actually agree to build their warships abroad. After the memorandum of 13 August, the question is different: who would build them and whether Congress would allow the administration to implement this plan.
