Can partner nations help solve the Navy’s shipbuilding woes?
On a trip through the Pacific, the chief of naval operations sought ways to get more warships faster.
Jennifer Hlad | November 24, 2025
Navy Indo-Pacific Industry
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii—Expanding the nation’s shipbuilding capacity and output is an “all-hands-on-deck effort,” the U.S. Navy’s top officer said, adding that he has never before seen such alignment “on the imperative” of making it work by Congress, the administration, the defense secretary, the Navy secretary, and the Navy itself.
In his first overseas trip as the chief of naval operations, Adm. Daryl Caudle visited South Korea, Japan, and Guam before stopping in Hawaii to tour aging barracks and talk to sailors about quality-of-life issues. In South Korea, Caudle visited HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean shipyards, “to see how can some of our partners bolster our shipbuilding.”
“There’s so much capability there, that we need to partner with them, in the U.S. and in their own country. Same in Japan,” Caudle said Friday. “We’re behind in shipbuilding—that’s atrophied over decades in the United States, and it’s such an important part of our global presence here, our logistics here, our ability to defend ourselves, and have the deterrence mechanism necessary.”
But despite the apparent by-in from leaders across the board, “building ships is not a light switch,” he said. “It takes time to build a high-end ship.”
In the meantime, Caudle said, he must work with the head of Pacific Fleet and Indo-Pacific Command “to ensure that we know how to fight with what we’ve got in existence today.”
https://www.defenseone.com/business/2025/11/can-partner-nations-help-solve-navys-shipbuilding-woes/409727/?oref=d1-homepage-river
