Latest news with #LewisandClark-class
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
A South Korean shipyard just picked up a new repair job from the US Navy as it turns to allies to help fix the fleet
A leading South Korean shipyard has won a repair contract for a US Navy auxiliary supply ship as the sea service looks to allies for assistance in maintaining the fleet. South Korea is a prominent allied shipbuilding power in the Pacific, and the US has been exploring closer cooperation that could provide answers as the Navy takes a hard look at the American yards constructing and doing maintenance on its ships. On Wednesday, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. announced that it had secured a maintenance, repair, and overhaul contract for the US Navy Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS Alan Shepard. The overhaul will begin in September near HD Hyundai's headquarters in Ulsan on the southeastern coast. The planned repair work will include propeller cleaning, tank maintenance, and inspections of onboard equipment. Alan Shepard is expected to be delivered to the Navy in November. The Navy didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on the upcoming work. The contracted work is "highly significant," Joon Won-ho, head of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries' Naval and Special Ship Business Unit said, per the company's statement, because it marks the first contract following the South Korean government's proposal for a joint shipbuilding initiative with the US — MAGSA, or Make American Shipbuilding Great Again. South Korean officials proposed this MASGA initiative late last month as Washington and Seoul negotiated and navigated tariffs. The $150 billion partnership will be led by South Korean shipbuilders and help strengthen the US shipbuilding industry, including constructing new yards, supporting worker training, and assisting with ship maintenance. President Donald Trump and some other US officials have said that building more Navy ships and fixing broader shipbuilding and maintenance problems are top priorities, although questions remain on how the administration plans to pursue that. Before the MASGA initiative, HD Hyundai was already working closely with American shipbuilders, including a strategic partnership agreement with Huntington Ingalls Industries, among other collaborations in the US commercial sector. Other South Korean shipbuilders have also been helping with Navy repair and maintenance. In March, Hanwha Ocean finished up a regular overhaul on the USNS Wally Schirra, another Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship. The repair work marked the first time that a South Korean yard had bid on and won a regular overhaul contract of that scale for that type of vessel. In the MASGA proposal, South Korea's top shipbuilders — HD Hyundai, Hanwha Ocean, and Samsung Heavy Industries — agreed to cooperate on exploring how to bolster America's industry. While US allies and partners have been involved in helping maintain the Navy's fleet before, there has been a ramp-up in cooperation. US experts and officials have noted that Indo-Pacific allies, namely South Korea and Japan, have robust shipbuilding industries that may have answers to Navy problems. Some potential solutions observed in allied shipyards include better in-house worker training and more effective and efficient ship designs that reduce the labor hours needed to construct, maintain, and modernize vessels. Some models from outside the defense sector may also be applicable to military shipbuilding. Navy leaders have acknowledged that the service can learn from the shipbuilding capabilities of its allies and partners. In April 2024, then-Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro visited a South Korean shipyard and said he was "floored at the level of digitization and real-time monitoring of shipbuilding progress, with readily available information down to individual pieces of stock material." During that trip, Del Toro encouraged South Korean companies to invest in commercial and naval shipbuilding facilities in the US, as many were "largely intact and dormant" and "ripe for redevelopment." The current Navy secretary, John Phelan, visited both Hanwha Ocean Shipbuilding and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in April and emphasized the value of South Korean yards in helping the US Navy maintain readiness in the Indo-Pacific, a priority theater where competition with China, a shipbuilding juggernaut with a substantial fleet, is a key focus for the Department of Defense. "Leveraging the expertise of these highly capable shipyards enables timely maintenance and repairs for our vessels to operate at peak performance," Phelan said. "This level of large-scale repair and maintenance capability strengthens our combat readiness, sustains forward deployed operational presence, and reinforces regional stability." In addition to the Wally Schirra, a South Korean yard has also worked on USNS Yukon, which is a Henry J. Kaiser-class underway replenishment oiler. These discussions come as the Navy struggles to address long-standing issues in how it builds and maintains its fleet. There are backlogs in maintenance, and major shipbuilding programs have faced significant delays and overrun costs due to a range of factors, such as workforce issues, limited shipyard capacity, supply chain disruptions, and logistics and timeline problems. The problems have raised concerns in Washington about fleet size and readiness as the US focuses on deterring and preparing to fight a potential conflict with an adversary like China. The Navy has said that South Korean shipbuilding is an asset to the US as China's shipbuilding industry dominates the global market and pumps out military vessels at an alarming rate.
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
A South Korean shipyard just picked up a new repair job from the US Navy as it turns to allies to help fix the fleet
South Korea is a prominent allied shipbuilding power in the Pacific, and the US has been exploring closer cooperation that could provide answers as the Navytakes a hard look at the American yards constructing and doing maintenance on its ships. On Wednesday, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. announced that it had secured a maintenance, repair, and overhaul contract for the US Navy Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS Alan Shepard. The overhaul will begin in September near HD Hyundai's headquarters in Ulsan on the southeastern coast. The planned repair work will include propeller cleaning, tank maintenance, and inspections of onboard equipment. Alan Shepard is expected to be delivered to the Navy in November. The Navy didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on the upcoming work. The contracted work is "highly significant," Joon Won-ho, head of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries' Naval and Special Ship Business Unit said, per the company's statement, because it marks the first contract following the South Korean government's proposal for a joint shipbuilding initiative with the US — MAGSA, or Make American Shipbuilding Great Again. South Korean officials proposed this MASGA initiative late last month as Washington and Seoul negotiated and navigated tariffs. The $150 billion partnership will be led by South Korean shipbuilders and help strengthen the US shipbuilding industry, including constructing new yards, supporting worker training, and assisting with ship maintenance. President Donald Trump and some other US officials have said that building more Navy ships and fixing broader shipbuilding and maintenance problems are top priorities, although questions remain on how the administration plans to pursue that. Before the MASGA initiative, HD Hyundai was already working closely with American shipbuilders, including a strategic partnership agreement with Huntington Ingalls Industries, among other collaborations in the US commercial sector. Other South Korean shipbuilders have also been helping with Navy repair and maintenance. In March, Hanwha Ocean finished up a regular overhaul on the USNS Wally Schirra, another Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship. The repair work marked the first time that a South Korean yard had bid on and won a regular overhaul contract of that scale for that type of vessel. In the MASGA proposal, South Korea's top shipbuilders — HD Hyundai, Hanwha Ocean, and Samsung Heavy Industries — agreed to cooperate on exploring how to bolster America's industry. While US allies and partners have been involved in helping maintain the Navy's fleet before, there has been a ramp-up in cooperation. US experts and officials have noted that Indo-Pacific allies, namely South Korea and Japan, have robust shipbuilding industries that may have answers to Navy problems. Some potential solutions observed in allied shipyards include better in-house worker training and more effective and efficient ship designs that reduce the labor hours needed to construct, maintain, and modernize vessels. Some models from outside the defense sector may also be applicable to military shipbuilding. Navy leaders have acknowledged that the service can learn from the shipbuilding capabilities of its allies and partners. In April 2024, then-Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro visited a South Korean shipyard and said he was "floored at the level of digitization and real-time monitoring of shipbuilding progress, with readily available information down to individual pieces of stock material." During that trip, Del Toro encouraged South Korean companies to invest in commercial and naval shipbuilding facilities in the US, as many were "largely intact and dormant" and "ripe for redevelopment." The current Navy secretary, John Phelan, visited both Hanwha Ocean Shipbuilding and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in April and emphasized the value of South Korean yards in helping the US Navy maintain readiness in the Indo-Pacific, a priority theater where competition with China, a shipbuilding juggernaut with a substantial fleet, is a key focus for the Department of Defense. "Leveraging the expertise of these highly capable shipyards enables timely maintenance and repairs for our vessels to operate at peak performance," Phelan said. "This level of large-scale repair and maintenance capability strengthens our combat readiness, sustains forward deployed operational presence, and reinforces regional stability." In addition to the Wally Schirra, a South Korean yard has also worked on USNS Yukon, which is a Henry J. Kaiser-class underway replenishment oiler. These discussions come as the Navy struggles to address long-standing issues in how it builds and maintains its fleet. There are backlogs in maintenance, and major shipbuilding programs have faced significant delays and overrun costs due to a range of factors, such as workforce issues, limited shipyard capacity, supply chain disruptions, and logistics and timeline problems. The problems have raised concerns in Washington about fleet size and readiness as the US focuses on deterring and preparing to fight a potential conflict with an adversary like China. The Navy has said that South Korean shipbuilding is an asset to the US as China's shipbuilding industry dominates the global market and pumps out military vessels at an alarming rate.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Top US, South Korean shipbuilders partner to bolster vessel production
America's largest naval shipbuilder, HII, reached an agreement Monday to partner with South Korea's HD Hyundai Heavy Industries to boost shipbuilding across numerous vessel classes. The landmark agreement, signed as a memorandum of understanding at the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space Symposium at National Harbor, Maryland, covers not only military but commercial shipbuilding efforts, according to a HII press release. 'By working with our shipbuilding allies and sharing best practices, we believe this [agreement] offers real potential to help accelerate delivery of quality ships,' Brian Blanchette, HII executive vice president and president of Ingalls Shipbuilding, said in the release. Won-ho Joo, chief executive of HHI's naval and special ship business unit, called the agreement 'a new milestone for both of our companies,' adding that the arrangement will provide South Korea 'with the unique opportunity to expand our expertise in shipbuilding.' Hyundai Heavy Industries owns the world's largest shipyard, located in Ulsan, South Korea. The company, which boasts 10% of the world's shipbuilding market, asserts it can 'produce more than one [Aegis-equipped] ship per year, equivalent to the U.S. Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyer,' HHI Specialized Ship Business Division Managing Director Woo-man Jeong told a South Korean news outlet. 'If maritime defense cooperation with the U.S. is in full swing,' Jeong added, 'we will be able to build up to five ships per year, and there is room for further expansion.' The agreement inked between HHI and its U.S. counterpart, which is headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, is the latest indication of increased naval collaboration between the two countries. Last month, South Korea's naval industry notched a significant first when the Military Sealift Command's Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS Wally Schirra completed a seven-month regular overhaul at a Hanwha Ocean shipyard in Gyeongsangnam-do. The overhaul marked the first time a Republic of Korea shipyard bid on and won a contract of that scale, according to a U.S. Pacific Fleet release. 'The Republic of Korea's ability to conduct large-scale maintenance to USNS ships within the Indo-Pacific Theater demonstrates the strong strategic partnership between the Republic of Korea and the United States,' Rear Adm. Neil Koprowski, U.S. Naval Forces Korea commander, said in the release. 'Maintenance in Theater reduces downtime and costs, while enhancing operational readiness. This is a landmark achievement to be celebrated as a symbol of our strengthened partnership and ironclad commitment to the ROK-U.S. alliance.' Monday's U.S.-South Korea shipbuilding agreement comes on the heels of a recent Government Accountability Office report that described the state of U.S. shipbuilding over the past 20 years as lingering in a 'perpetual state of triage.' During a March 4 address to the nation, President Donald Trump promised to establish a new office of shipbuilding within the White House to inject life into the industry and revitalize U.S. naval strength. 'We used to make so many ships,' Trump said. 'We don't make them anymore very much, but we're going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact to further enhance our national security.'
