As China's maritime influence continues to expand, the United States finds itself in a precarious position, with its naval power dwindling.
In response to this growing concern, President Donald Trump has announced the creation of a new "Office of Shipbuilding," a move that experts believe is a critical first step towards the U.S. reclaiming its naval supremacy.
In his joint address to Congress in March, President Trump revealed his plans to establish this office, aiming to rejuvenate both commercial and military shipbuilding within the United States. The nation's maritime power is in a state of crisis as the manufacturing base continues to contract, while China's maritime prowess continues to outstrip that of the U.S. According to the Daily Caller, experts warn that Beijing's dominance poses a severe threat to national security.
"The U.S. is ranked 14th in the world. We are basically just barely above Iran, which I don't think is some major shipbuilding power," Colin Gabrow, a policy analyst at the CATO Institute, told the Daily Caller. "Look at data from the last five years, the U.S. is behind Norway and the Netherlands, tiny countries. We're well behind."
The Office of Shipbuilding is still in its infancy, with the executive order to officially establish it currently being drafted, as reported by the U.S. Naval Institute News (USNI).
The National Security Council is expected to lead the office, with the U.S. Trade Representative and the secretaries of Defense, Commerce, State, Transportation, and Homeland Security given six months after the order is signed to draft a plan to revive American shipbuilding. The order also mandates an investigation into China's "unfair targeting of maritime logistics, and shipbuilding sectors."
China's market share in industries such as high-technology ships, maritime engineering equipment, and "green" shipbuilding has surged since 2011, leading Beijing to set even loftier goals. Consequently, China's shipbuilding market share has grown from approximately 5% in 2000 to over 50% today.
"They have the world's largest shipbuilding industry, and many of our allies rely on Chinese shipyards for fixing their commercial ships and building their commercial ships," Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told the Daily Caller. "So the Chinese, in many ways, control the terms of trade."
China also holds a significant advantage in military shipbuilding, surpassing the U.S. Navy's total ship count in 2020 with 360 ships compared to just 296 in the U.S. fleets, according to a January Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. The U.S. has been grappling with significant delays in naval shipbuilding, with some contractors extending their deadlines for ship delivery by up to three years.
The national security implications of commercial shipbuilding, though not immediately apparent, are also worth considering, Gabrow said. "This is perceived as a national security vulnerability," Gabrow told the Daily Caller. "You want to have a vigorous, vibrant shipment industry, which has some military utility to repair and build ships in times of war. This needs to be turned around I think is the mentality, hence the talk of the establishment of the Office of Shipbuilding."
The broader U.S industrial base has declined alongside maritime output, with manufacturing jobs falling from an all-time high of 19.6 million in 1979 to just 12.8 million jobs in 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"In my view, nothing is more important than addressing the critical labor shortages that afflict all of the shipbuilding and public maintenance yards," Dr. Eric Labs, senior analyst for naval forces and weapons at the Congressional Budget Office, told the House Armed Services Committee Tuesday. "For years, recruitment at the yards has been hard. Retention is even harder."
Shipbuilding jobs have been virtually wiped out in the U.S., declining nearly 80% since the 1950s, with the number of shipyards rigged for large ships also declining at roughly the same rate, a McKinsey report concluded.
"It's more than just ship building," Sadler told the Daily Caller. "I think it's maritime industrial base, which is ship building, shipping, port infrastructure, and naval ship building and repair. But what's missing is, and I think this is what the president was getting at in his speech, is there's probably the need for something like a 'maritime czar,' someone who can coordinate from the economic side, the National Economic Council, but also the national security aspects of this through the National Security Council."
Sadler suggests that one of the first steps the office should take is to update National Security Directive 28, issued in 1989 to counter the rising threat of the Soviet Union in maritime power. "I would have that signed by the President, that would make very clear what the priorities are in this industrial base, and then set some very clear goals," Sadler told the Daily Caller. "How many ships will we get? Will we meet the need to have tankers in the Navy, and who will be responsible? Not just submit a plan, but more 'I want this many ships per year.'"
"President Trump has long discussed rebuilding America's shipbuilding capabilities," Anna Kelly, deputy White House press secretary, told the Daily Caller. "The White House, however, does not have any formal announcements to make at this time." The creation of the Office of Shipbuilding, therefore, represents a significant step towards restoring America's maritime power and addressing the national security concerns that arise from the current state of the industry.
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