WASHINGTON — The Navy wants Congress to sign off on building a small number of auxiliary ships and parts of combatant vessels overseas to “supplement” domestic production, according to the service’s recently released Fiscal Year 2027 Shipbuilding Plan.
Despite this request, building and maintaining ships in the US remains “central” to President Donald Trump’s shipbuilding vision and is the priority, the 30-year shipbuilding plan said.
“In parallel to that domestic expansion, however, we are also pursuing options to grow the fleet now,” according to the plan. “To achieve this vision, the Navy is requesting targeted legislative changes, specifically offering a proposal for the FY27 NDAA to authorize the construction of up to two auxiliary ships and the flexibility for fabrication of some combatant modules overseas.”
As a result, the plan says the Navy is proposing that US prime contractors are given greater flexibility to subcontract work with foreign partners to craft “non-sensitive modules” like hull structures in allied overseas yards for surface-combatant ships. This approach would allow the US to continue with its designs for ships like destroyers, while also capitalizing on the advanced manufacturing capabilities from allied facilities.
“This low-risk approach will accelerate production and preserve US design sovereignty and security by focusing domestic work on the more complex efforts like final assembly, integration of classified systems, testing and activation,” the plan said.
The shipbuilding plan comes after former Secretary of the Navy John Phelan told reporters at the Sea Air Space exposition in April that the Navy was eyeing using foreign shipyards for work on both auxiliary and combatant ships. Likewise, the director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought said at the same conference that the US would turn to alternative shipyards if the “traditional” sources could not deliver ships on time and on budget.
The new shipbuilding plan, released Monday, also confirmed that the Trump-class battleship will be nuclear-powered, and that the Navy wants an inventory of 15 battleships by 2056 — the first of which is slated for delivery in 2036.
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The shipbuilding plan requests $65.8 billion for shipbuilding alone for FY27, in accordance with the Navy’s FY27 budget request released in April, and in alignment with Trump’s Golden Fleet Initiative. In total, it calls for expanding the Navy’s inventory to 450 ships, including battle force ships, auxiliary ships, and unmanned vessels, by 2031.
“The United States is at a strategic inflection point, and rebuilding American maritime dominance requires urgency, accountability, and sustained commitment,” Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao said in a statement on Monday. “This Shipbuilding Plan provides a roadmap for the Golden Fleet, to grow a larger, more capable Fleet while revitalizing the industrial base, strengthening our workforce, and ensuring our Sailors and Marines have the platforms they need to defeat any adversary for decades to come.”