US outlines measures to ease shipbuilding bottlenecks

US President Donald Trump has signed a national security memorandum outlining new measures to boost the country’s shipbuilding efforts, to “restore capacity” and ease bottlenecks.  

Under the memorandum, the US Department of War has been directed to attract more direct investment in the country’s shipbuilding industrial base, while temporarily allowing some non-US production to help expand capacity. 

According to a White House fact sheet released on 13 August, the measures included in the new memorandum are intended to address “critical long-term issues” in both shipbuilding and repair programmes. 

This follows earlier efforts by the Trump administration to boost shipbuilding, including the establishment of the Office of Maritime and Industrial Capacity in April 2025 and the release of the Maritime Action Plan in February 2026. 

Laying the groundwork  

The new memorandum says that foreign companies looking to win contracts to produce US ships must now make “substantial and durable investments” into US shipyards, whilst training “an all-American workforce” for US efforts. 

If these conditions are met, then the companies will be “temporarily permitted” to build a maximum of two ships using their shipyards abroad, the fact sheet says. 

This is intended to both mitigate the immediate need for new ships, while laying the groundwork for expanded US shipbuilding capacity in the coming years. 

This approach follows the so-called ‘Finland model’, which the White House says has been “successful” in delivering US ships from Finland as part of the US Coast Guard’s Arctic Security Cutter programme. 

Boosting repair capacity 

In the same vein, the memorandum directs Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary of War, to establish a fifth public naval shipyard – the first new yard of its kind in over 80 years – to help expand the US Navy’s ability to repair aircraft carriers and submarines. 

There is no indication – at this time – as to where the new shipyard will be established. 

Additionally, Hegseth is directed by the memorandum to establish a ‘Component Repair Center’, which will act as a hub for the storage, repair, and refurbishing of “critical components for all major submarine programmes”.