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..

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The top Marine has a key objective for the Corps: getting Marine Expeditionary Units back on full deployment schedules.
But he’s going to need some help.
“My top priority … is restoring a 3.0 MEU presence worldwide,” Commandant Gen. Eric Smith said April 7 at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space Exposition.
More specifically, that means a three-ship MEU with an Amphibious Ready Group, or ARG-MEU, deployed out of the East Coast, one out of the West Coast and a third on periodic deployments out of Okinawa, Japan.
The primary impediment? Amphibious ships.
The Corps needs 31 amphibious ships under law at a readiness level of 80% or greater to consistently meet that need, Smith said. But the readiness of that fleet is hovering at about 50% at any given time.
Marines hindered by Navy’s amphibious ship maintenance delays
An Amphibious Ready Group includes an assault ship, a landing ship with helicopter platform and a dock landing ship. ..

Counter-drone companyEpirus unveiled anew high-power microwave system capable of disabling manned and unmanned boat motors, it announced Tuesday.
Leonidas H2O “was effective against vessel motors at record ranges” during the U.S. Navy’s Advanced Technology Exercise Coastal Trident event in Crane, Indiana, held in August 2024, according to the announcement. The system knocked out four commercially available vessel motors, varying in horsepower from 40 to 90 “at a multitude of ranges,” it noted.
The Pentagon “has spent years of research and development and spent tens-of-millions of dollars into developing a non-kinetic vessel stop solution, with no operational system deployed to date. With Leonidas H2O, we are bringing forth a technology with demonstrated effectiveness to fill this capability gap, today,” Epirus CEO Andy Lowery said in the statement.
The California-based company debuted its ground-based system designed to protect forward operatin..

The Navy formally unleashed its newest Virginia-class fast attack submarine, the Iowa, in a commissioning ceremony Saturday in Groton, Connecticut.
The 377-foot vessel, built by General Dynamics Electric Boat, can dive to depths of more than 800 feet below the surface and maneuver at speeds of over 25 knots, or nearly 29 miles per hour.
Iowa is equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles and a nuclear reactor plant that eliminates the need for refueling, according to a Navy release. And as a Virginia-class, the boat was built with flexible design features, including an expansive lock-in/lock-out chamber for special operations divers and a reconfigurable torpedo room. The submarine can also deliver unmanned undersea vehicles.
“Make no mistake, naval warfare is evolving. Where battleships once ruled the seas, it is the silent strength of submarines that provides our Navy with an unmatched strategic advantage,” Navy Secretary John Phelan said at the commissioning ceremony. “This is..

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — General Atomics and Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems are teaming up to produce a long-range precision-guided missile for the U.S. market, the companies announced this week.
The weapon, dubbed Bullseye, will be launchable from the sea, land and air, with the developers promising “significant attack performance against high-value targets at an affordable price point.”
“We’re getting lessons learned on cost reduction, and we’ll build at least half the missile in the United States,” Scott Forney, President of General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, was quoted as saying by Naval News.
Development of the weapon was announced at the Sea-Air-Space 2025 conference in Maryland.
The Bullseye missile appears to be derived from Rafael’s Ice Breaker system, which has a 300-kilometer (186 miles) range. Unlike Ice Breaker, however, the new missile will be able to carry various warheads and propulsion systems, Gener..

ISTANBUL — Turkish defense company STM held a keel-laying ceremony in Istanbul this week for three corvettes being built for the Royal Malaysian Navy under the Littoral Mission Ship (LMS) Batch-2 program.
The ships represent Turkey’s first corvette export to the Asia-Pacific region and will support Malaysia’s ability to carry out a variety of maritime defense missions including anti-surface, anti-air, asymmetric and electronic warfare.
Based on the ADA-class design, the three corvettes are scheduled for delivery by the end of 2027.
STM, the main contractor, is responsible for the design, construction, integration, and delivery of the vessels, as well as logistics support. The ships are being tailored to meet Royal Malaysian Navy requirements and will be constructed in Turkey with the involvement of local defense firms.
The LMS Batch-2 ships will feature a stealthy hull with a low radar cross-section and high maneuverability. With a displacement of approximately 2,500 ..

MILAN — Canadian and Finnish shipbuilders have made different offers to the United States for the production of icebreakers, which must weigh what it values more: speed or its sovereign shipyard industry.
Following President Donald Trump’s expressed interest in January of acquiring 40 new icebreakers for the U.S. Coast Guard, Helsinki has set its sights on scoring what could be a major deal with Washington.
Before his visit to meet with the American leader in Florida last month, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said that he hoped “icebreaker diplomacy would help Finland maintain good relations with the U.S. and Trump.”
However, the country is not the only one in line, as a major Canadian shipbuilder specialized in the construction of such vessels wants a piece of the business.
“Finland is most definitely trying to build the U.S. icebreakers in Finland. … The discussions we’ve been having with the U.S. is around whether they could take our des..

President Donald Trump on April 9 signed an executive order aimed at revitalizing an American shipbuilding industry that has fallen well behind production levels of its rivals from the People’s Republic of China.
Language in the executive order, which cites the need to strengthen a “commercial shipbuilding capacity and maritime workforce,” mirrors many concerns expressed among the industry’s defense counterparts.
In an April 8 hearing of Navy leadership before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower, service officials voiced concerns regarding stagnant shipbuilding and what that could mean for success in great power conflicts.
Navy officials in March 2024 stated the service’s goal of growing its fleet of battle force ships to 381 over the next 30 years, a plan that would require investing at least $40 billion each year over the duration of the effort, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
There are currently fewer than 300 battle force ships i..

Aerojet Rocketdyne supplies one of the most critical parts of a munition — solid rocket motors — and since L3Harris acquired the company roughly two years ago its goal has been to ramp up production to meet the skyrocketing demand for tactical and strategic missiles.
As part of that quest, Aerojet broke ground earlier this year to build four new solid rocket motor production facilities at its campus in Camden, Arkansas.
Defense News sat down earlier this month with the dual-hatted Ken Bedingfield, who is both L3Harris’ chief financial officer and Aerojet Rocketdyne’s president, to discuss the rapidly expanding solid rocket motor industry and how the company is looking to innovate by changing the way it manufactures and partners to deliver capability.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
With the demand of solid rocket motors being as high as they are, where do you think the company will go in terms of building capacity in the next five years?
It’s..

PARIS — Denmark will invest about 4 billion Danish kroner (US$615 million) through 2033 in the country’s Navy and Home Guard fleets, aiming to improve surveillance and defense of the country’s home waters, the government said.
The plans include the acquisition of four multifunctional environmental-protection and minelaying vessels, a ship with drones and sonar systems to monitor underwater activity, as well as 21 new vessels for the Naval Home Guard, Defense Minister Troels Lund Poelsen said at a press conference in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
The plan was backed by the three-party coalition government and six of the eight other parties in parliament. The parties also agreed on long-term investments in additional capabilities, including air-defense frigates, as well as a decision later this year to buy more Arctic vessels, with details still to be determined.
The tasks of the four environmental and minelaying vessels will include surveillance as well as clean-up of chemica..