NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — President Donald Trump is pushing to revive America’s long-dormant shipbuilding capabilities, and senior Navy officials say the administration’s plan to pour billions into the effort marks a critical first step to bridging the gap with Beijing.
The president’s defense budget for 2027 seeks to increase overall defense spending to $1.5 trillion, a 40% to 44% increase, with $65.8 billion going toward America’s hollowed-out shipbuilding industrial base. It’s a much-needed lifeline for U.S. shipbuilding and marks the biggest increase in decades, experts say, as China has risen to become the world’s global leader in ship production.
“China’s shipbuilding capacity outstrips the United States 236-to-1,” former U.S. Navy Capt. and current Senate candidate Morgan Murphy, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “That is a national security emergency.”
“It helps narrow the gap,” Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan told the DCNF at the Sea Air Space 2026 expo Monday, noting that Chinese ship quality is inferior to vessels made in U.S. shipyards.
“China has basically subsidized their shipbuilding industry and has a massive share on the commercial side, which they are using to subsidize their military side,” Phelan said. “I think that it’s a start, certainly a start to help that gap.”
A particular weak point is America’s shipbuilding infrastructure, Phelan said, declaring it to be a “real problem” that needs to be fixed.
“One, you know, pier. I won’t say where, where half of it is structurally unstable,” Phelan told the DCNF. “Now, the Navy, being innovative like they are, has figured out how to make the other half of the pier work. But guess what? It takes three times as long to do work.”
He explained that the return on investment from fixing the pier would take about 14 months to mature. He said the U.S. won’t spend the money because “no one’s really done the math.”
“Let us sink in a historic budget request like we have not seen in decades,” Christopher Miller, portfolio acquisition executive for PAE Maritime, said during a panel on advancing Navy and Coast Guard shipbuilding on Monday. “It’s not just about the battle force. It’s also about our support ships, our auxiliaries, our logistics force and the industrial base.”
“The whole of government, whole of nation shipbuilding order of 41 ships alone represents the largest demand signal to the maritime industrial base since the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt,” a White House fact sheet announcing the budget says.
‘Can Build 200 Times Our Rate’
China has the largest shipbuilding industry in the world, using its shipyards to produce both military and commercial vessels. The country produces roughly 50% of all commercial ships globally, while the U.S. makes up less than 1%, according to RAND.
The new budget allocates funding for “President Trump’s Golden Fleet,” including the Trump-class battleship, which will be a nuclear-armed warship based on a statement provided by Navy Secretary John Phelan during a press conference on Dec. 22.