Modular Construction Is Key for Navy’s Shipbuilding Goals

Modular shipbuilding could enable the U.S. Navy to access untapped talent, ramp up production and redefine the nation’s shipbuilding strategy to align with the Trump administration’s calls to boost the Navy’s fleet, Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a non-partisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., explained at Defense One’s State of Defense: Navy & Marines event last week.

Modular shipbuilding — where components of the ship are built at facilities other than the final assembly yard and then delivered to the assembly yard — allows ships to be constructed anywhere in the country, tapping into workforces that would historically be unavailable.

Modular ship construction “[takes] the ship building and [puts] it where the people are available, the workers are available rather than trying to get the workers to come to the shipbuilder.”

The solution aligns with President Donald Trump’s calls to bolster American shipbuilding. Trump promised to create a new office within the White House to back the effort.

“We are also going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding,” Trump said during his first address to a joint session of Congress on March 4. “I am announcing tonight that we will create a new Office of Shipbuilding in the White House and offer special tax incentives to bring this industry home to America, where it belongs.”

“This White House office, one of their goals will be how can we do more of that modularization of the ship, particularly the submarine, but other ship production processes and take advantage of workforce availability in the center of the country,” Clark said.

As the Navy works to meet the new administration’s shipbuilding goals, Rep. Joe Courtney, member of the House Armed Services Committee and ranking member of the House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, noted a skills gap between generations and emphasized the need to educate younger employees to further develop their skills.

“The fact of the matter is we really do need to focus in terms of connecting young people, whether it’s through trade schools, pre-apprenticeship training programs, apprenticeship programs,” Courtney said at AFCEA WEST 2025.

Former Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said the Navy will need 150,000 new shipbuilders over the next 10 years to maintain the Navy’s fleets at AFCEA WEST 2024. He added the service will need to be “relentless” in recruiting new shipbuilders from the nation’s cities and states to improve a “national asset.”

“We’re also tackling the long-term health of American shipbuilding. This isn’t just a Navy priority. It’s a national imperative for our country. And I’m driving innovation to change our outdated shipbuilding and repair paradigms,” Del Toro said.

Del Toro also highlighted the importance of robotics during his tenure, as unmanned systems enter the Navy’s arsenal and shipyards become digitized and automated.

“Robotics is transforming our own shipyards here in this country. The introduction of AI and mass production of steel and other things as well too [have changed the business],” Del Toro said at the U.S. Naval Institute’s Defense Forum Washington 2024.