Maritime (Formerly Shipbuilding, Maritime Domain, Sea Domain) Oct. 28, 2025

All Ahead Full: Revitalizing the U.S. Maritime Industrial Base

2025 Antonelli Award Winner-The United States has long depended on maritime power to safeguard national interests, drive economic growth, and maintain global influence. Central to this capability is the Maritime Industrial Base, a complex ecosystem of domestic and international shipbuilders supporting both U.S. commercial and defense needs. Today, the United States faces a critical choice regarding the future of its Maritime Industrial Base: whether to actively revitalize it or let market forces determine its future. The People’s Republic of China, the U.S.’s primary strategic competitor, has rapidly emerged as the world’s leading maritime power, producing over half of global commercial vessels and fielding a naval fleet larger than America’s. This underscores the urgent need to revitalize a U.S. Maritime Industrial Base weakened by decades of underinvestment and wavering national focus, undermining the nation’s ability to respond to emerging threats, build and sustain its fleet, and advance broader economic and national security objectives.

Maritime (Formerly Shipbuilding, Maritime Domain, Sea Domain) May 31, 2024

A Calculated Intervention: Practical Actions to Revitalize the U.S. Maritime Industry

The report, developed by a seminar of students and professionals, identifies key challenges in the U.S. maritime industry, including issues with affordability, production capacity, and resilience. These stem from aging infrastructure, labor shortages, outdated manufacturing, and restrictive policies. The industry’s focus on defense over commercial competitiveness has further worsened its global standing. The report proposes policy recommendations to address these problems, aiming to revitalize the industry, enhance national security, and improve global competitiveness, particularly through efforts focused on commercial shipping and U.S. allies.

Maritime (Formerly Shipbuilding, Maritime Domain and Sea Domain) May 30, 2023

Navigating the Waves: Assessing and Addressing Key Issues in U.S. Shipbuilding and Repair

For over seven decades, the United States has championed a rules-based global order, allowing international commerce to flourish. The 2022 National Security Strategy (NSS) reaffirms this vision, specifying the United States' commitment to “an open, prosperous, and secure international order…free from aggression, coercion, and intimidation.” Critical to fulfilling this ambition is ensuring the United States has the military capacity to protect its territory and project its global power. To achieve this, the United States Government must dedicate time and resources to modernize and strengthen its military, equipping it to successfully prevail in great power competition with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) while addressing acute threats such as Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Maritime (Formerly Shipbuilding, Maritime Domain, Sea Domain) May 30, 2022

Righting the Ship: Positioning the U.S. Maritime Industrial Base to Mobilize in the 21st Century Strategic Competition

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, China’s maritime interests (the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), Chinese Coast Guard, and Maritime Militia) have rapidly accelerated on a path to challenge United States’ naval supremacy. As a result, the United States is moving to modernize its Naval Service, defined collectively as the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps, and the U.S. Coast Guard, into an integrated all-domain force that excels in Distributed Maritime Operations to maintain the advantage at sea and enforce foreign policy objectives.

Maritime (Formerly Shipbuilding, Maritime Domain, Sea Domain) March 23, 2021

Clarity, Compromise, and Competition: Leveraging the Unmanned Arsenal of Democracy to Execute Distributed Maritime Operations and Strengthen the U.S. Shipbuilding Industry

Sixteen students spent 24 academic sessions, one week of travel, and one month of independent and group research on an issue of strategic importance that thousands of experts on the Navy staff think about every day. What value can this report provide? In a word, this report attempts to provide perspective. The players within the military-industrial-congressional complex can never entirely escape the realities of Miles’ Law and the inherent biases that come from the positions they fill. As students, we offer perspectives generally unconstrained by service loyalties or chains of command, informed by a year of academic study, and enlightened by engagements with business, congressional, and Naval leaders. Synthesizing these viewpoints with our own, we provide the following point of view. Our Industry Study focused on the maritime industry and its positioning to support Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO) by introducing manned and unmanned vessels into the Navy fleet. Our research focused upon the Navy’s manned and unmanned modernization efforts framed by today’s Great Power Competition (GPC). Unmanned vessels’ transformative technologies require a healthy ecosystem of support that includes an innovative, capable industrial base, engaged academics and researchers, and trusting congressional allies. Our Industry Study assessed the health and viability of these segments through academic sessions on national and Naval policy, the global shipbuilding industry, individual research on topics related to DMO and unmanned technologies, and both virtual and in-person visits with entities throughout the maritime ecosystem. Our findings underscore that a robust domestic shipbuilding industry is vital to realizing National Security Strategy (NSS) and National Defense Strategy (NDS) objectives and the DMO concept.

Maritime (Formerly Shipbuilding, Maritime Domain, Sea Domain) Oct. 1, 2020

Maritime Industry Support for National Security

As the U.S. continues to mitigate ongoing concerns with budget constraints and the evolving strategic environment, U.S. policies must likewise adapt. As the U.S. experiences budget constraints amid changing national security requirements, the relationship of maritime dominance and national power must be evaluated. The primary outcome of this industry study is the acknowledgement that unchanged policy or lack of reform will impede America’s global naval dominance and further erode our maritime competitiveness. This industry paper focuses on the policies the USG should implement to ensure sea/maritime capabilities necessary to support U.S. National Security. This report emphasizes outcomes that maintain and sustain the current Naval fleet, leverage global resources, and invest in the future. These outcomes are considered through four primary lenses: shipbuilding capabilities, human capital limitations, infrastructure observations, and realignment of sustainment investment. The paper presents numerous recommendations, while offering a consolidated list and providing four main options for consideration.

Maritime (Formerly Shipbuilding, Undersea Domain) May 20, 2020

Undersea Domain Industry Study

The undersea domain remains key to national security and global trade. The U.S. must invest in a portfolio of undersea recommendations that considers full cost-spectrum capabilities, protects critical infrastructure, enables new technological gains, and postures industry to maintain asymmetric advantage during great power competition. The research conducted in this study identifies challenges in the U.S. defense industrial complex. The undersea industry cannot scale and mobilize using traditional means. Initiatives expressed in this document present steps to resource the undersea industrial ecosystem appropriately, refine UUV requirements, enhance competition in the industrial base, reorient the current shipbuilding paradigm, and augment diplomatic efforts. In addition to having the world’s greatest sailors, our recommendations will ensure the U.S. Navy can continue to provide an asymmetric undersea advantage.

Maritime (Formerly Shipbuilding, Maritime Domain, Sea Domain) Aug. 21, 2018

Plotting a Course Through Dangerous Waters: An Analysis of the Shipbuilding Industrial Base, Policies, Risks, and Opportunities

As the United States settles into the 21st century, the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine and China’s one road, one belt effort mark the public reemergence of great power competition and refocus America’s strategic priorities. The ability of the US to project power, maintain freedom of navigation in the commons and deter aggression has never been more critical. “The revisionist powers of China and Russia, the rogue states of Iran and North Korea, and transnational threat organizations, particularly jihadist terrorist groups—are actively competing against the United States and our allies and partners.” As America’s strategic rivals actively attempt to undermine her instruments of power, a strong industrial base acts as a countervailing force to their efforts. The ability to field, man and maintain an effective seagoing force is fundamental to protecting the homeland, promoting American prosperity here and abroad, preserving peace through strength, and advancing American influence.

Maritime (Formerly Shipbuilding, Maritime Domain, Sea Domain) Dec. 30, 2017

Shipbuilding: All Hands on Deck! Headwinds and Heavy Seas Ahead to Achieve the 355-Ship Navy

The American shipbuilding industry boasts unmatched technology but has shrunk to a fraction of its former size. American shipyards now depend on defense contracts and protective legislation to survive amid booms, busts, and subsidized foreign competition. For US-based shipbuilders to produce the ships needed to acquire a 355-ship Navy expeditiously and affordably, the US Government must adopt a disciplined approach of long-term planning, building from mature designs, introducing new technologies incrementally, and executing multi-year contracts for blocks of ships. These and other reforms will speed production, reduce cost, stabilize the industry, and help shipyards invest in facilities, technology, and workforce.