The United States has ordered a plan to establish a fifth public Navy Yard and created a framework allowing qualifying foreign shipbuilders to build up to two U.S. vessels at their parent yards before subsequent construction moves to the United States.

President Donald Trump signed the National Security Presidential Memorandum, Rebuilding the United States Navy and America’s Shipbuilding Industrial Base, on 13 August 2026. The directive targets shipbuilding delays, rising costs, limited industrial capacity and growing repair requirements across the U.S. Navy.

Under the memorandum, the Secretary of War, in consultation with the Secretary of the Navy, must submit a plan within 120 days to increase the readiness of nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers. The plan must include the establishment of a fifth public Navy Yard, which the White House said would be the first new public naval shipyard in more than 80 years.

The proposed yard plan must consider locations close to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, including the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. territories. It must also examine up to three new drydocks capable of accommodating every current and projected submarine class, along with private-sector capabilities, public-private financing options, schedules and funding requirements.

A separate Component Repair Center is also included in the directive. A plan for the facility is due within 90 days and must identify a geographically centralized location near major road, rail and river transport networks. The center would receive new components and refurbish existing parts required by the submarine repair industrial base.

The plan must provide sufficient resources to maintain at least one ship set of spare equipment for the Los Angeles, Virginia, Seawolf, Ohio and Columbia submarine classes.

The memorandum also introduces an international procurement approach based on the U.S.-Finland medium icebreaker arrangement signed in October 2025. The so-called Finland Model can be applied to up to three ship classes covered by the directive.

Under the framework, a qualifying foreign shipbuilder can build up to the first two ships at its parent foreign yard. All vessels after those initial ships must be constructed at U.S. shipyards.

Foreign participation is tied to specific U.S. investment and production requirements. The supplier must build a new shipyard in the United States or take ownership or a majority equity position in an existing U.S. yard. It must also hire and train American citizens, license proprietary shipbuilding techniques and technologies used at the parent foreign yard to its U.S. operations, and establish a U.S. supply chain for construction and maintenance.

The international procurement approach covers a new competitive acquisition plan for surface combatants with anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare and convoy escort capabilities. Separate plans are also required for Consolidated Cargo Replenishment at Sea tankers and Roll-On, Roll-Off vessels.

The memorandum delegates authority to the Secretary of War to determine whether an individual construction contract qualifies for a national-security waiver from the general restriction on building U.S. Armed Forces vessels in foreign shipyards. No contract under the waiver can be awarded until 30 days after Congress receives the national-security determination.

The policy has placed foreign shipbuilders with existing U.S. operations in focus. Hanwha Group acquired Philly Shipyard in 2024 and has pledged $5 billion to expand the Pennsylvania facility. Reuters reported on 14 August that Hanwha Group and Italy’s Fincantieri have the largest U.S. shipyard footprints among the foreign shipbuilders covered in its report.

Fincantieri has invested more than $800 million in its U.S. shipyards over the past decade, including facilities in Wisconsin. The company has also secured a $30 million U.S. Navy contract for early work on the Medium Landing Ship programme.

South Korea has separately committed $150 billion to U.S. shipbuilding cooperation as part of a broader $350 billion investment package. That commitment, together with Hanwha Group’s existing U.S. shipyard investment, provides an established industrial link between South Korean shipbuilding capacity and the U.S. effort to expand domestic maritime production.

The memorandum also orders a review of Naval Sea Systems Command, or NAVSEA, within 120 days. The review must recommend personnel, organizational and structural reforms aimed at introducing results-based accountability, reducing bureaucracy and preventing repeated changes to mature parent ship designs.

The new policy combines limited access to foreign construction capacity with requirements for U.S. shipyard investment, American workforce training, technology licensing and development of a domestic supply chain. While qualifying foreign yards may construct up to two initial vessels, subsequent production under the model must take place in the United States.