The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman passes the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush as it departs Norfolk Naval Shipyard. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Steven Edgar)
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is pushing for a fifth public shipyard to support a growing fleet, the head of the Office of Management and Budget said Wednesday.
The Trump administration’s budget request includes $65.8 billion for shipbuilding alone for fiscal 2027, and calls for expanding the Navy’s inventory to 450 ships — including battle force ships, auxiliary ships, and unmanned vessels — by 2031. The request also includes $1.85 billion in reconciliation funding to study whether foreign shipyards could be used to build US warships — with designs on possibly procuring the first vessel from South Korea or Japan, Breaking Defense previously reported.
To maintain the vessels in this dramatically expanded fleet, OMB Director Russell Vought said the administration is “pushing hard for an additional public shipyard.”
“If we’re going to spend a one-and-a-half trillion dollars, or have the types of direct foreign investment that’s coming in, we want to make sure that we have the ability to have enough public shipyards to do maintenance,” Vought said at the Washington Times’ IndoPac 2026 event Wednesday. “You’re going to have contracts with companies that are doing maintenance [in private shipyards], and that’s all fine, and will continue, but … to do it at scale is something that is absolutely vital.”
