Posted on October 13, 2025
Restoring America’s maritime dominance requires a turn toward speed, innovation and collaboration.
The U.S. Navy celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding Monday. Nearly nine months before issuing the Declaration of Independence, with the Colonies already at war with Britain, the Continental Congress recognized the urgent need to build a fleet to secure Americans’ freedoms and support the fledgling nation’s prosperity. Now, in an echo of this Colonial past, the United States urgently needs to recommit itself to shipbuilding.
The world is becoming more dangerous, and China is building the world’s largest navy, drawing on an industrial and manufacturing capacity that dwarfs our own. America is trying to hold on to its command of the seas with an aging fleet and a maritime industrial base that has been in decline for decades.
America was born defiant on the seas. Breaking free from British naval dominance was key to securing independence. Since then, America’s naval power has both safeguarded liberty and protected commerce. But in 2025, the U.S. is losing the shipbuilding race — badly.
The U.S. constructs less than 1 percent of global shipping tonnage, while China accounts for 53 percent. U.S. shipyards struggle to produce even a handful of commercial ships each year. Less than two percent of U.S. trade moves on American-flagged vessels, leaving the country’s economy dangerously exposed. Worse, the decline of the shipbuilding industry threatens America’s ability to build and sustain nuclear submarines, putting the most survivable leg of the nuclear triad at risk.
Thankfully, both the White House and Congress recognize the need to act. In April, President Donald Trump issued an executive order on “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance,” which directed U.S. shipyards to build ships fast, at scale and with modern tools. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act provided more than $29 billion in new funds to help make that happen.
The U.S. also needs to embrace innovation. The USX-1 Defiant, christened in August at Everett, Washington, is one example. Versions of this 180-foot unmanned surface vessel can be built quickly and affordably. Born from a five-year Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency project, Defiant points to a way to leapfrog China and revitalize America’s maritime industrial base.
Here’s what should come next:
Start with what’s fastest. Vessels modeled on Defiant can be built quickly because they are small, use preassembled modules and are relatively inexpensive. There are commercial shipyards on each of America’s “four coasts” — Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf and Great Lakes — that could make them, spreading workload, standing up new suppliers and rebuilding nationwide capacity. Production can be sped up and cost driven down through digital engineering, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing.
Build like a racing team. A dedicated design-and-manufacturing center that iterates rapidly — designing, simulating, building, sea-testing and refining — should be created. This center can serve as a knowledge base and data commons for approved shipyards, compressing production cycles into months rather than years. Crucially, resulting intellectual property should be assigned to the U.S. Navy to prevent vendor lock-in and enable broad adoption.
Scale through networks. Validated designs and digital manufacturing plans should be distributed to shipyards nationwide, knitting them together with inland manufacturers that can produce modules. Schools, community colleges and universities can come together to train welders, electricians, planners and digital technicians. Such a distributed maritime manufacturing model will spread risk, standardize best practices and scale output.
Unleash private capital. U.S. financial markets are the nation’s asymmetric advantage. Private capital should be braided into public funding to modernize yards, finance suppliers’ working capital, expand training pipelines and build workforce housing. With a steady stream of contracts from the Navy and U.S. Coast Guard, capital will unlock bottlenecks and get supplies flowing to shipyards.
During World War II, U.S. industrial leaders mobilized and fostered collaboration among labor, government and manufacturers. Some 1.5 million men and women were trained to build Liberty ships — more than 2,700 vessels in four years. It all worked because the U.S. government partnered with business, absorbed risk and guaranteed production.
Restoring U.S. maritime dominance can begin with a Liberty Ship 2.0 program. A year from now, the U.S. should aim to launch its first wave of American-built autonomous vessels enabling new combat strategies for the Navy. By embracing innovation and the country’s shipbuilding heritage, America’s maritime industrial base can once again outperform all challengers.
