Pentagon mulls plan to outsource warship design and building to Korea, Japan

Warships from Korea, the United States and Japan participate in an anti-submarine exercise in the East Sea in this Sept. 30, 2022 file photo. Courtesy of ROK Navy

The Pentagon is considering outsourcing warship design and building to Korea and Japan with a proposed $1.85 billion feasibility study into the project, according to U.S. media reports.

The study — included in the 2027 budget — will look at the feasibility of adopting or co-producing advanced hulls such as Japan’s Mogami-class and Korea’s Daegu-class frigates to supplement the U.S. Navy’s overstretched production lines, USNI News reported on Friday.

If the plan goes ahead it will be the first time the U.S. has bought a major surface combatant from a foreign partner since World War II.

It comes as the Donald Trump administration is frustrated by chronic delays, labour shortages and cost overruns within America’s industrial base.

The initiative also aims to bridge a widening shipbuilding capacity gap with China, which is currently producing six to 10 destroyers per year — four to six times the rate of the United States.

Japan’s Mogami-class has a 5,500-tonne stealth hull with a high degree of automation. Korea’s Daegu-class is smaller at 3,600 tonnes and has a silent propulsion system. Both are equipped with U.S.-standard systems, such as the MK-41 vertical launching system.

A basic Mogami-class frigate costs about $500 million and can be completed by manufacturer Mitsubishi within two years. This is significantly faster and cheaper than America’s Constellation-class frigate, which is projected to cost over $1 billion per ship and has fallen years behind schedule.

Australia has ordered 11 upgraded Mogami-class vessels for A$20 billion ($14.4 billion) — the first three to be built in Japan and the remaining eight in Australia. The first ship is expected to be delivered in 2029.

The U.S. Navy needs more ships “right now,” Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said on Wednesday at the Navy League symposium. “If we cannot get the ships we need from traditional sources at cost and on time, we will get them from other shipyards,” he added.

The Pentagon is seen from Air Force One as it flies over Washington, March 2, 2022. AP-Yonhap

Former secretary of the navy John Phelan told USNI News that the navy had been “directed to take a look at the possibility” of having Korean and Japanese combat ships last Tuesday, a day before he was sacked.

The U.S. frigates and destroyers could incorporate foreign designs and some of the building work might also be done in overseas shipyards, according to the report which cited sources familiar with the details of the feasibility study.

The U.S. Navy’s Constellation-class (FFG-62) frigate originally used an Italian design and was intended to be built in domestic shipyards. But extensive design modification requirements from the US Navy, compounded by labour shortages at the local shipyard, led to delays of at least three years, severe cost overruns, and ultimately the cancellation of the programme.

Any plan to build vessels abroad will face significant legal and political hurdles.

Current U.S. federal law mandates that navy vessels be built in domestic yards to protect national security and local jobs. Foreign involvement would require a high-level presidential waiver and is expected to face fierce opposition from domestic shipbuilders, labour unions and members of Congress representing shipbuilding states.

Proposals to mitigate these concerns include allowing East Asian defence contractors to acquire and modernise underperforming U.S. shipyards, as well as importing advanced automation and management techniques to upgrade American manufacturing.

Hanwha, one of Korea’s largest shipbuilders and a major defence contractor, has already bought the Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia. This deal was cited by navy deputy assistant secretary for budget Ben Reynolds as a way for the U.S. to expand shipbuilding capacity.

“The best answer for us is to get a foreign investment — foreign partnership — that will help us in our shipyards here in the United States,” Reynolds told reporters.

Read the article at SCMP.