The United States’ largest military shipyard, Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), signed a cooperation agreement with South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries on April 7th to help enhance America’s shipbuilding capabilities. President Trump signed an executive order on April 9th, aiming to revitalize the U.S. shipbuilding industry. He also called for an investigation into the reasons behind the delays in the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding progress and mentioned the possibility of purchasing ships from closely related countries.
Over the past decade, Chinese shipyards have rapidly produced a large number of warships, building the world’s largest fleet for the Chinese Navy. The United States, mainly due to limited domestic shipbuilding capacity and labor shortages, has been lagging behind. Between 2019 and 2023, the U.S. Navy had planned to acquire 11 Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines and 15 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers but only received 4 submarines and 7 destroyers. Additionally, of the 45 ships under construction, approximately 37, or around 82%, are expected to face delays ranging from 5 months to over 3 years.
In addition to traditional warships, the U.S. Navy is also betting on unmanned warships, hoping these highly intelligent unmanned surface and underwater vessels can address the challenges faced by conventional warships. On one hand, this approach reduces reliance on traditional shipyards, expands the sources and production capacity of warships, and on the other hand, it decreases the number of combat personnel required. The U.S. military has established 2 squadrons of unmanned surface vessels and a squadron of unmanned submarines, and has begun deploying them to the Asia-Pacific region to test their combat effectiveness. These unmanned warships will undoubtedly play a crucial role in the future, although they are unlikely to fully replace manned warships.
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