WASHINGTON — In a new memo certain to make significant waves for the future of US Navy shipbuilding, President Donald Trump on Thursday called for the US to outsource the building of at least a few Navy ships to foreign shipyards.
The new National Security Presidential Memorandum urges the expansion of the so-called “Finland model” currently employed to build the Coast Guard’s Arctic Security Cutters where initial vessels are built in Finland by foreign yards and subsequent vessels are constructed domestically. The memo says that as long as foreign shipbuilders agree to some stringent conditions on-shoring future work to the US, they would be allowed to build up to two ships in three different ship classes at their parent docks, which would then be transferred to the US.
These ship classes include surface combatants with “sufficient inherent capabilities to perform anti‑submarine warfare, surface warfare, and convoy escort duties,” as well as those that meet “the requirements for Consolidated Cargo Replenishment at Sea (CONSOL) Tankers and — separately — Roll-On, Roll-Off Vessels,” according to the memo.
Prior to Thursday’s directive, the Trump administration had already been pushing Congress to sign off on the Navy hiring foreign shipyards to build four vessels in the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, and also had been requesting reconciliation funds go toward studying — and potentially procuring — an initial vessel from overseas. Congress has pushed back though, and each chamber has imposed their own restrictions in their respective versions of the NDAA.
