Overview
- The White House issued a national-security waiver in August that allows the Pentagon to study foreign-built combatants as a break from a century of domestic-only construction.
- Reported candidates under review are Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Mogami export design, South Korea’s Chungnam class, and Turkey’s Istanbul class.
- Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao has directed ASN(RDA) William Mahan to complete the formal study by Nov. 12, 2026, and the preferred pathway could mirror a ‘Finland model’ with the first one or two hulls built overseas before U.S. production begins.
- Congress is moving to curtail the plan with draft FY2027 defense-policy language that would limit the waiver or bar funding for warships built abroad, setting up a direct executive–legislative contest over the proposal.
- The push responds to the Constellation-class cancellation, urgent fleet-size goals versus China, and allied yards’ faster build tempo, but officials warn of hard technical work on combat-system integration, testing, sustainment and workforce transfer if a foreign design is adopted.