U.S. Navy Taps South Korean Shipbuilders for Destroyers, Support Ships

What Happened The U.S. Navy just sent formal requests for information to South Korea's biggest shipbuilders — HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean, and Samsung Heavy Industries — asking if they can design and build destroyer-class warships and fleet support vessels. This isn't a contract yet, but it's a serious signal: the U.S. is opening the door to Korean firms for work that's historically stayed in-house.

HD Hyundai and Hanwha Ocean responded to inquiries covering both destroyers and support ships, while Samsung Heavy focused on fleet replenishment tankers, leaning on its deep experience building commercial tankers.

Why This Is Happening Now The U.S. Navy has a shipyard capacity problem. American yards are stretched thin, backlogged, and struggling to keep pace with modernization needs. Enter MASGA — Make American Shipbuilding Great Again — a bilateral initiative between the U.S. and South Korea aimed at rebuilding America's maritime industrial base through investment, workforce training, tech-sharing, and vessel maintenance partnerships.

This RFI process builds directly on that framework. Hanwha Ocean already has skin in the game: its Geoje shipyard just wrapped roughly six months of maintenance on the USNS Wally Schirra, a real-world proof point that Korean yards can handle U.S. Navy work.

The Money Behind It The numbers here are staggering. South Korea's recent push to win Canada's next-generation submarine contract was valued around $43 billion — already a massive prize. But industry estimates suggest long-term U.S. naval construction and modernization spending could hit roughly $1.2 trillion. Even a modest slice of that market would be transformative for Korea's shipbuilding sector.

What's Next This is still the information-gathering stage — no contracts have been awarded. But RFIs like this typically precede formal bidding processes, and the fact that all three major Korean shipbuilders responded shows how seriously they're taking the opportunity. Expect follow-up announcements on pilot projects, joint ventures, or expanded maintenance deals as MASGA cooperation deepens.

Why It's Worth Watching If Korean shipbuilders land even a fraction of U.S. Navy destroyer or support-vessel work, it reshapes global defense manufacturing alliances and could ease America's naval capacity crunch faster than domestic-only solutions. For South Korea, it's a shot at cementing itself as an indispensable partner in U.S. military logistics for decades to come.