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Description

Among the most pressing national security issues the new Trump administration has committed to tackle is revitalizing American shipbuilding. In April 2025, the president issued an Executive Order for that purpose of restoring U.S. shipbuilding and providing a maritime action plan for cross-agency coordination. Many historians view the industrial shipbuilding during World War II as the pinnacle of American enterprise to address national defense needs. While in World War II the United States was able to produce around 7,100 large vessels, current reality is much different since that industrial capacity was reduced during the post-war years due to overproduction and an enormous surplus of existing ships. The Reagan administration provided a brief period of renewed funding for the naval shipbuilding industry to achieve a 600-ship Navy, but the commercial sector continued to decline. During the Global War on Terror the Merchant Marine was neglected and the Maritime Administration budget was slashed. While at its peak in 1943 the United States built almost 90% of vessels worldwide, today that capacity has sunk to 0.2%, and 90% of the market share has been taken over by China, Korea, and Japan. Today, the United States’ 154 private shipyards are almost entirely dedicated to building military or repairing vessels for the U.S. Navy. Meanwhile, the remaining public naval shipyards of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Puget Sound, and Pearl Harbor often have outdated infrastructures that struggle to keep pace with fleet maintenance and repair.

Publication Date

9-9-2025

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5038/UXVM8682

GNSI Decision Brief: American Shipbuilding: From Crisis to Made-in-America Opportunity

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