This week, the US Navy put out a “request for information” from Korea’s three largest shipbuilders, trying to determine how they could help bolster the US Navy’s fleet.

Despite its relatively small size, South Korea boasts the second-largest shipbuilding industry in the world by market share, with approximately 19 percent of the global order backlog. Its shipbuilding industry is dominated by the “Big Three” shipbuilders: Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean, and Samsung Heavy Industries. All three companies rely heavily on robotic automation, which has resulted in highly productive domestic shipyards.

It therefore isn’t surprising that the US Navy is once again considering turning to the shipbuilders in Asia to help address the pitfalls plaguing the US domestic shipyards.

Although no formal contracts have yet been offered, US officials are actively seeking to hear what the South Korean industry could provide for the building of combat ships and oilers. The Department of Defense and the US Navy sent out a request for information (RFI), a market research procedure that could give Washington some insight into the production capabilities, costs, and potentially even timelines.

Korean Ships for America? The Biden Administration Considered It

This is the first time that the Trump administration has directly sought such detailed information from South Korea. However, under the presidency of Joe Biden, then-US Ambassador to Japan and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel led the efforts to see if Japanese industry could take on the shipbuilding of support vessels.

Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has called for greater efforts to be made to rebuild America’s domestic shipyards under the Make American Shipbuilding Great Again (MASGA) project. That proposal, which would entail strategic investments from Korean shipbuilders in the United States, initially seemed to signal that the US wouldn’t actually require help from foreign shipyards.

However, as the situation became clearer and Trump called for a new “Golden Fleet,” he quickly saw that it might need to lean on its friends overseas.

Virginia-based Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) signed a deal with Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) to jointly produce the US Navy’s next-generation logistics ship. In October 2025, the two parties signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2025 forum in Gyeongju, South Korea, to advance Korean-American joint shipbuilding efforts. The MOA also marked the first time that any Korean shipbuilder would have a role in the construction of a US Navy vessel.

In May, the US Navy’s newest shipbuilding plan explicitly announced that the service would “evaluate overseas options” for constructing US Navy vessels—an unprecedented move that seems out of step with Trump’s calls to bring manufacturing home.

The Sad Truth: Korea’s Shipyards Can Build What America’s Can’t

The RFI is now the next step in making the building US Navy warships at foreign shipyards. It comes just weeks after President Trump asked South Korean President Lee Jae-myung at the G7 summit in France, “Can you quickly build 10 US warships?”

Lee later recounted that he said South Korea could. Trump liked that answer, and now Washington is taking it even further. The RFI could provide insight for Washington into what Seoul could actually deliver.

What is noteworthy is that the US has moved beyond just logistic ships and even oilers, the latter being a much-needed unsung workhorse that makes long deployments such as those to the Middle East this year possible. The US simply doesn’t have enough of these supply ships in service, and contracting their construction to a US ally like South Korea would have lower stakes than asking Seoul to build a destroyer or an aircraft carrier.

Still, the Pentagon is seeking to determine if a foreign shipyard could build a US warship to meet its goal of adding 12 ships a year to grow the fleet. As many current warships are reaching the end of their service life, the US Navy may need to build as many as 364 vessels over the next 30 years. The work could be handled domestically at US shipyards now owned by South Korean companies, or via partnerships such as the one between HII and HHI.

Existing American law, notably the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendment, bars the construction of US Navy vessels at foreign shipyards, but it is becoming apparent that US industry can barely handle current demands.

America Has Relied on Foreign Shipbuilding Before

Historically, the US Navy’s warships have been almost exclusively built domestically to protect the industrial base, but there have been some notable exemptions.

During the American Revolution, the Continental Navy utilized captured vessels. In 1790, the United States Revenue Cutter Service, the maritime law enforcement and military branch that became the US Coast Guard in 1916, operated the Dutch-built Indien, which was later renamed the South Carolina.

In the 1920s, the US Navy also commissioned several smaller warships built in foreign ports, notably Shanghai, China, for use with the Asiatic Fleet.

Trump has called for not only more warships, but also a new class of nuclear-powered battleships. The American shipbuilding industry continues to face a graying of its workforce, a lack of new employees, and supply chain woes. Turning to a foreign yard may not be the best option, but it could be the only option. That will require easing laws and regulations like the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendment, but the alternative is delays and failure to reach the Navy’s required strength.

About the Author: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu has contributed to dozens of newspapers, magazines and websites over a 30-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a contributing writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.

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