![\"Replenishment-At-Sea](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764432025_791_0x0.jpg\")
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Guided-missile cruiser USS Hue City (CG 66), the German navy frigate FGS Hamburd (F220), the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), and the Military Sealift Command fast combat support ship USNS Bridge (T-AOE 10) during a replenishment-at-sea, Arabian Sea, March 23, 2013. Image courtesy Ryan D. McLearnon\/US Navy. (Photo via Smith Collection\/Gado\/Getty Images).<\/p>\n
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Concerned experts, both civilian and military, have been warning for years about the dangers presented by the shocking decline in US shipbuilding capabilities, particularly in contrast to those of our rising geopolitical adversary, China. This week\u2019s announcement<\/a> by Secretary of the Navy John Phelan of the cancellation of the Constellation-class frigate-building program only added fuel to the fire.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter decades of apathy and neglect, there are no easy nor cheap solutions to getting the Navy on course and in time to deter let alone persevere in a war with China,\u201d Captain Brent Sadler (U.S. Navy, Retired), senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told me via instant messaging. \u201cCanceling the frigate program is far from adequate as it does not address the need for more shipbuilding capacity, more firepower in the western Pacific by 2027, and a needed frigate class ship to round out a perilously unbalanced fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n A shipbuilding collapse<\/strong><\/p>\n The frigate program is just one of many maritime canaries in the coal mine. American shipbuilding delivered nearly 90% of global output<\/a> at its high-water mark during WWII. Today it has collapsed to just 0.2% of gross tonnage<\/a>\u2014essentially nonexistent. While China builds well in excess of 1,000 oceangoing ships per year, America makes fewer than five.<\/p>\n Sadler has been sounding the alarm about that for years, tying his beloved Navy\u2019s needs to the equally urgent matter of commercial shipbuilding.<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t really done the due diligence, the hard work and commitment of resources to keep and maintain the Navy that we need,\u201d he said during his recent appearance<\/a> on my Manufacturing Talks web show and podcast. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve been for too long getting by on the backs of our sailors, many times\u2014extra work, extra maintenance, extra everything on their backs. And this whole thing, the whole system, is starting to break.\u201d<\/p>\n Sadler dove into the dire numbers for the Navy in a recent article<\/a> for the U.S. Naval Institute. \u201cToday, the U.S. fleet numbers 296 battle force ships, but it should have been at 321 to stay on pace with earlier plans to reach 355 ships by 2034. That 355-ship goal was based on a 2016 force structure assessment and has since been codified into law by Congress. What is most remarkable about the assessment is that, originally, the fleet need in 2016 was 459 ships and that was only lowered to 355 for fiscal reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n However, he argued on my program that even the 2016 goal was far short of what\u2019s really needed. \u201cWe know that we\u2019re going to need more ships,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no way around it for the size of the threat from China, and then add in the Russians moving around the world, and then understanding where, politically, the Navy is going to be called on to act, without putting at risk that deterring the Chinese, you’re going to need about 575 ships.\u201d<\/p>\n Desperate needs<\/strong><\/p>\n In a separate paper<\/a> for Heritage earlier this year, Sadler laid out the details of how America can get from here to there, centered around legislation such as the SHIPS for America Act<\/a> of 2025, and including such essentials as:<\/p>\n Sadler also sees a big role for our nation\u2019s allies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re going to have to leverage our overseas partners, our allies\u2014Japan, South Korea\u2014trusted, signed defense-treaty partners with a lot of common national interest,\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s important, and they’re making strategic investments here to do that, but they’ve got ships. So do the Greeks in LNG.\u201d<\/p>\n Good news in American shipbuilding is currently scant. But there are green shoots to build from toward Sadler\u2019s goals. One important question to answer is where investment can go where we can move quickly to fulfill the country\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n Port opportunities<\/strong><\/p>\n Wind turbine parts are loaded onto a cargo ship at the Port of Brownsville in Brownsville, Texas, US, on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2025 Bloomberg Finance LP<\/p>\n\n