With the signing of a new national security memorandum, the White House appears ready to open a new chapter and challenge one of the longstanding taboos of U.S. defense policy: building American warships abroad.
The document, signed by Donald Trump and addressed to the Pentagon, covers several aspects of U.S. military shipbuilding, from the configuration of future Ford-class aircraft carriers to the Navy’s internal governance.
But the most consequential shift is the proposed expansion of the so-called “Finnish model,” which for the first time puts on the table the possibility of building U.S. Navy vessels outside the United States. It is a move that opens up previously unexplored scenarios, with Italy among the countries potentially positioned to play a role.
A shipbuilding base in crisis. The memo addresses a problem the Trump administration has been trying to tackle since taking office: the deep crisis of America’s naval industrial base. Decades of troubled programs, chronic shortages of skilled workers and difficulties in finding qualified suppliers have resulted in systemic delays and spiraling costs across most of the U.S. Navy’s major programs.
- The Zumwalt-class destroyers, Constellation-class frigates and Ford-class aircraft carriers are all well-known examples of the problems affecting U.S. shipbuilding, with schedules slipping and budgets rising well beyond initial projections.
- Seen through the lens of global competition, the picture is even more concerning. China has overtaken the United States in the number of warships, with more than 370 vessels compared with roughly 290, giving it the world’s largest navy by hull count. The United States, however, retains fundamental strategic advantages in overall tonnage, global power projection and the number of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
- To address this situation, the administration has already introduced several measures, from the new “Vessel Construction Manager” model designed to accelerate delivery timelines to an increasingly explicit openness toward investment by foreign partners in U.S. shipyards. But there is still a long way to go.
The “Finnish model”. The new document addresses several fronts. Beyond its more technical provisions — such as abandoning the EMALS electromagnetic catapult system, deemed overly complex — it refers to a mechanism already tested by the U.S. Coast Guard for the construction of icebreakers.
- That model is based on an agreement with Helsinki and the involvement of Canadian shipbuilder Davie, which acquired the Gulf Copper facility in Texas after the first vessels were built in Finland. The memo now proposes extending the scheme to three categories of U.S. Navy vessels: frigates, escort ships and replenishment vessels.
- Under the model, foreign partners would be allowed to build the first two vessels at their own shipyards, but only on the condition that they open or acquire facilities in the United States, train local workers and integrate the American supply chain. Subsequent vessels would have to be built entirely in the United States. The formula, however, runs up against federal law, which requires warships to be built domestically unless a presidential waiver is granted.
Italy and South Korea already well positioned. Against this backdrop, a possible expansion of the “Finnish model” could pave the way for additional arrangements and hybrid forms of industrial cooperation with partners that are already established or rapidly expanding in the U.S. market.
- Italy’s Fincantieri, through its subsidiary Fincantieri Marine Group and its Marinette Marine shipyard in Wisconsin, which employs around 3,000 people, has an industrial relationship with the U.S. Navy stretching back decades. In recent years, that presence has translated into roughly $1 billion in direct investment to modernize its facilities. Despite the downsizing of the Constellation program, the group has secured an initial $30 million contract to begin work on the new Landing Ship Medium, a program the Navy intends to expand to as many as 35 vessels.
- Alongside the Italian group, South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean is among the leading foreign investors in U.S. shipbuilding. In 2024, it acquired Philly Shipyard and launched a $5 billion investment plan to increase its production capacity. The operation falls within the broader MASGA initiative — “Make American Shipbuilding Great Again” — which envisages up to $150 billion in Korean investment in U.S. shipbuilding.
Pushback on Capitol Hill. President Trump’s plan still faces significant obstacles. Congress is moving in the opposite direction, with the Senate Armed Services Committee proposing to remove from Title 10 of the U.S. Code the presidential waiver that makes it possible to purchase warships built abroad. In the House, meanwhile, an amendment introduced by Democratic Representative Jared Golden seeks to prevent funds allocated to domestic shipbuilding from financing the activities of foreign operators.
- The Shipbuilders Council of America has also come out against the proposal, arguing that every vessel built overseas would divert demand, jobs and industrial capacity away from the very domestic ecosystem the administration says it wants to rebuild.
The bottom line. The direction taken by the White House in recent months is clear. The Trump administration is determined to regain ground in shipbuilding, recognizing that naval power has always been a crucial element of great-power competition — and will remain so for the foreseeable future. From this perspective, the gap with China has become strategically untenable.
- The demands of rebuilding U.S. shipbuilding capacity appear, at least in part, to be testing the limits of the America First approach. At the same time, nationalist sentiment within U.S. politics — centered on protecting economic security and “Made in USA” jobs — has become a cross-party issue and an increasingly important political lever for parties and lawmakers seeking reelection ahead of the November midterm elections.
