The HD Hyundai shipyard in Ulsan hosted senior U.S. Navy and Marine Corps officials on 4 November. A caption on photos published through the Pentagon’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS), as quoted by Yonhap, said the delegation reviewed South Korea’s naval shipbuilding capabilities, military installation infrastructure and logistics support.
The officials included Brendan P. Rogers, assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy for energy, installations and environment; Lt. Gen. Andrew M. Niebel, the Marine Corps deputy commandant for installations and logistics; and Maj. Gen. Valerie A. Jackson, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Korea. The itinerary also covered maritime sustainment, operational readiness and ways to strengthen the South Korea-U.S. alliance, according to the DVIDS caption.
The visit took place amid broader shipbuilding discussions between Seoul and Washington under the MASGA initiative, or “Make American Shipbuilding Great Again.” In October, HD Hyundai and Kiewit announced plans for the proposed joint venture HD Kiewit Shipbuilding LLC to develop a new U.S. shipyard. The companies’ joint-venture announcement sets 2027 as the target for construction to begin and 2029 for full-scale operations. Initial plans cover naval auxiliary and commercial vessels.
An HD Hyundai official told Aju Press that visits by U.S. Navy officials to the company were not unusual. The official said the company could not confirm whether this visit was connected to a particular naval shipbuilding programme. Neither the U.S. military nor HD Hyundai announced a new contract or agreement resulting from the visit.
