What’s next for America’s icebreakers: 2026 preview
The White House in 2024 and 2025 prioritized rebuilding America's icebreaker fleet. But how long will that last?
The White House in 2024 and 2025 prioritized rebuilding America's icebreaker fleet. But how long will that last?
A new big boss? A new big ship? 2025 held a lot of change for the sea services with even more foreshadowed coming in 2026 and beyond.
The new vessel, coming in around 30,000 tons, will be capable of carrying surface-launched nuclear missiles, creating what Navy Secretary John Phelan called a new nuclear deterrent.
"My work here is now complete and I will be cheering ULA on," the longtime ULA chief said.
“Recent operations from the Red Sea to the Caribbean make the requirement undeniable,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said.
The GAO's report was published the same day that the Navy released its own report on the V-22, saying it was committed to the program.
Navy Secretary John Phelan recently told attendees at a private dinner that the new frigate would be a modified National Security Cutter, sources told Breaking Defense.
"We’re deploying an AI-powered shipbuilding operating system across the maritime industrial base," Navy Secretary John Phelan told an audience alongside Palantir chief Alex Karp.
"My job is to pressurize that decision, because the war fighting imperative, I think, is there, and and I'm trying to build a compelling case to get that decision made quickly," Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said.
“We will competitively award a vessel construction manager to oversee the [program], drive execution and facilitate genuine competition among multiple shipyards,” Navy Secretary John Phelan said.
Navy investigators found one commanding officer's decision to fire on friendly fighter jets was neither "reasonable" nor "prudent" given the information he had at hand.
The new construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.
“This is going to be devastating for [Fincantieri’s] workforce. They invested heavily buying the yard in 2009 and invested a lot to win the frigate class competition,” one analyst told Breaking Defense.
Earlier this year, the Coast Guard halted construction on two of the four Offshore Patrol Cutters that Eastern Shipbuilding was under contract to deliver.