- During recent speech before Congress, President Donald Trump announced the creation of the "Office of Shipbuilding" in the White House.
- The commander in chief added he's focusing on building "the most powerful military of the future."
- The U.S. Navy proposes to spend $1 trillion over the next three decades to boost fleet to meet emerging threats on the sea.
Lost in much of the coverage of President Donald Trump’s recent speech to a joint session of Congress — highlighted by tariffs, culture wars and immigration talk — was a key military announcement: the formation of a maritime industrial office.
Trump prefaced his defense-related announcement during his March 4 speech, saying “this is a very dangerous world” and American citizens need protection “like never before.”
“To boost our defense industrial base, we are also going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding,” he said.
“And for that purpose, I am announcing tonight that we will create a new Office of Shipbuilding in the White House and offer special tax incentives to bring this industry home to America, where it belongs.”
No details were offered about what the tax incentives might look like or who would lead the shipbuilding effort.
Trump added that the United States was once a prolific shipbuilder. “We don’t make them anymore very much, but we’re going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact.”
During his speech, the commander in chief of the nation’s armed forces added he is focused on building the most powerful military of the future.
“As a first step, I’m asking Congress to fund a state-of-the-art Golden Dome missile defense shield to protect our homeland — all made in the USA,” said Trump.
The-President Ronald Reagan wanted to build such a defense system decades ago, he noted — but the technology did not exist. “Now we have the technology; it’s incredible, actually. And other places, they have it. Israel has it. Other places have it. And the United States should have it too.”
Matthew Paxton, the president of the Shipbuilder Council of America, saluted Trump’s shipbuilding announcement.
“We applaud the creation of the White House Office of Shipbuilding and the entire shipyard industrial base not only stands at the ready to work with the new Office of U.S. Shipbuilding, but we are also ready to answer the call to design and build America’s commercial and military fleets.”
Trump’s call for increased shipbuilding also prompted criticism.
Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, said the president’s shipbuilding announcement contradicts what’s happening at Maine’s Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
“It’s astounding to me that, just days after it was reported that the Trump administration would lay off workers at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the president is now claiming he plans to ‘resurrect the American shipbuilding industry,’” Pingree said in a Spectrum News report.
“You cannot achieve that without highly skilled professionals — especially if you’re planning to build the most advanced ships in our naval fleet at the shipyard in Kittery and at Bath Iron Works.”
NBCBoston reported that no major layoffs have been reported at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, though some of the shipyard’s employees recently accepted buyouts.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently announced a civilian employee hiring freeze within the department as part of the Trump administration’s vast effort to reduce the size of the federal government.
On Feb. 24, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard announced it had entered a hiring freeze and canceled a recruiting event that was scheduled for March 4, Maine’s WMTW reported.
The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is a U.S. Navy installation in Kittery, Maine, and is one of four remaining public naval shipyards in the nation. It employs approximately 8,000 civilians and 1,000 officers and enlisted personnel.
U.S. Navy plans to spend $1 trillion to boost fleet
Trump’s plans to create an “Office of Shipbuilding” comes weeks after a Biden-era Congressional Budget Office report outlined the U.S. Navy’s proposed plan to spend $1 trillion over the next three decades to boost the fleet.
Calls for aggressive shipbuilding in the United States come as the American fleet faces expanding global threats from China, Russia and other nations
The emerging “Fleet Race” pitting the United States and China is expected to be a defining element of the global military landscape in the coming years and decades.
Currently, China has approximately 234 warships, including approximately 50 frigates and the same number of destroyers, according to The Associated Press.
China also has two operating aircraft carriers and another undergoing sea trials, along with a massive and powerful coast guard.
The U.S. Navy has 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
Recent war games have shown China would lose many more vessels in a simulated clash with the U.S., but would be able to absorb the losses and continue fighting, the AP reported.
China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy operates primarily in waters off the Chinese east coast and in the massive, strategically crucial South China Sea.
But China’s Navy has also signaled projected power — sending ships further abroad including the Mediterranean Sea and the Caribbean in its attempts to use its navy as an extension of its growing economic and diplomatic clout.
Last December, the U.S. Navy’s fleet numbered 296 battle force ships — including aircraft carriers, submarines, surface combatants, amphibious ships, combat logistics ships, and some support ships.
To achieve its long-term goal of 381 battle force ships, the Navy would buy 364 ships over the next 30 years — 293 combat ships and 71 combat logistics and support ships, according to the CBO report.
If the Navy adhered to its schedule for retiring ships, it would have a fleet of over 300 ships by the early 2030s. In 2054, the fleet would number 390 ships, a little more than the Navy’s goal.
Sounding American shipbuilding alarms
Trump’s recent announcement to “resurrect the American shipbuilding industry” comes at a moment when Navy shipbuilding is in a “terrible state” — the worst in a quarter century, Eric Labs, a longtime naval analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, told The Associated Press last year.
“I feel alarmed,” Labs said. “I don’t see a fast, easy way to get out of this problem. It’s taken us a long time to get into it.”
Over the next 30 years, the nation’s shipyards would need to produce substantially more naval tonnage than they have produced over the past 10 years to reach the Navy’s goals.
The rate of production of nuclear-powered submarines, in particular, would need to increase significantly, the CBO report noted.