Trump Signs Order Letting Foreign Shipyards Build Navy Ships, Kills EMALS on Next Aircraft Carrier

President Trump signed a national security memorandum Thursday ordering the biggest shake-up of Navy shipbuilding in decades, including a first-ever pathway for foreign shipyards to build American warships and a mandate to strip a next-generation launch system off a carrier that's already 50% built.

The memo, titled "Rebuilding the United States Navy and America's Shipbuilding Industrial Base," targets what the White House calls chronic cost overruns, design churn and backlogs across six major shipbuilding programs, according to gcaptain. The administration says US commercial shipbuilding has fallen globally uncompetitive and needs outside capacity to close the gap while domestic yards rebuild.

The Finland Model, Expanded

The centerpiece is what officials call the "Finland Model," borrowed from an October 2025 US-Finland deal to build Coast Guard Arctic Security Cutters. Under that arrangement, Bollinger Shipyards is partnering with Rauma Marine Constructions to build the first two cutters in Finland before shifting production to Louisiana, per gcaptain. Canada's Davie is running a similar playbook, building its first two cutters in Helsinki before moving to Texas.

Trump's memo extends that model to as many as three Navy ship classes: surface combatants for anti-submarine and surface warfare and convoy escort duty, Consolidated Cargo Replenishment at Sea tankers, and roll-on/roll-off sealift vessels, according to Breaking Defense and multiple other outlets. A foreign shipbuilder could build the first two ships of a class at its home shipyard, but every vessel after that must be built in the US.

To qualify, foreign companies have to build a new American shipyard or take majority ownership of an existing one, hire and train American workers, license their shipbuilding technology to US yards, and stand up a domestic supply chain, per the White House fact sheet cited by the Korea Herald. Each contract still needs a national security waiver, and Congress must get 30 days' notice before any deal is signed.

Hanwha's Position

South Korea's Hanwha Group stands out as an early likely beneficiary. Hanwha bought Philly Shipyard in 2024 and has pledged $5 billion to expand it, according to the Korea Herald. That existing US footprint could satisfy the memo's ownership requirement. Hanwha is also pursuing a $1.05 billion to $1.2 billion acquisition of Austal USA, the Australian shipbuilder's American arm, per the Korea Herald.

Under the new rule, Hanwha could theoretically build initial vessels at its Hanwha Ocean yard in Geoje, South Korea, then shift follow-on work stateside. But the Korea Times reported Hanwha Group said only that it's "reviewing the details" and that Hanwha Ocean called it "difficult to comment on the matter at this point." That's a notably cautious response from a company with the clearest path to benefit, and it underscores that no contracts have actually been awarded yet.

Congress Is the Real Obstacle

The fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act is still being negotiated, and both the House and Senate have already inserted their own restrictions on foreign-built Navy ships into their respective versions, according to Breaking Defense and the Korea Times. Rep. Pramila Jayapal is among lawmakers whose chamber passed NDAA language that pushes back on the idea.

Annual defense appropriations bills have historically barred foreign construction of US Navy vessels outright. Trump's memo gives the Secretary of War authority to issue waivers, but it doesn't erase the statutory fight brewing on Capitol Hill. Whether the administration can actually get ships built overseas depends on whether Congress caves, tightens further, or blocks it entirely in the final NDAA.

Bradley Martin, a retired Navy captain and senior policy researcher at RAND, told Breaking Defense the technical hurdles are just as real as the political ones. "We just never really have done that with a combat-type ship," Martin said, adding the US would have to decide "some things just aren't as important" when it comes to matching foreign build standards to US Navy specs.

Steam Catapults Return

The memo's other headline item is that the Navy's fourth Ford-class carrier, the USS Doris Miller, will ditch the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System in favor of steam catapults and hydraulic weapons elevators, according to Reuters via US News. Trump has hammered EMALS publicly for years, telling a defense summit in Pennsylvania last month the system is "not nearly as good, too complex."

The Doris Miller is already roughly 50% complete, according to a statement from General Atomics, EMALS's manufacturer, cited by Reuters. General Atomics said reversing course now "would introduce significant cost, schedule, and integration risks." The Navy, when Reuters asked for comment, referred questions to the White House.

The lead Ford-class carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, had logged 36,863 EMALS launches as of March 2026 per Pentagon documents cited by Reuters, and the system has also been adopted by France's navy after early reliability problems. The Secretary of War has 60 days to produce a plan detailing the cost, timeline and resources needed for the switch. The memo sets no cost estimate and no revised delivery date, though the Navy currently anticipates delivering the Doris Miller in early 2034, per Reuters. Huntington Ingalls, the carrier's builder, saw its stock tick up slightly in after-hours trading following the announcement.

The memo also directs a fifth public Navy shipyard, the first new one in more than 80 years, with officials given 120 days to scout locations near the Pacific Fleet, according to Prokerala. Whether any of this survives contact with Congress, and whether Hanwha or another foreign yard actually lands a contract, will depend on coming developments on Capitol Hill.