Trump unveils plan to revive US shipbuilding, expand naval production

US President Donald Trump has unveiled an ambitious plan to revive American shipbuilding asserting that his administration would expand domestic ship production work with foreign partners to accelerate construction and rebuild Americas naval industrial base after decades of declineSpeaking at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit on Wednesday local time Trump said rebuilding shipyards and expanding naval production had become a national security priority as the United States seeks to modernise its fleet and strengthen military readinessWe need a lot of ships for our Navy a lot of ships Trump said Despite the fact we have the greatest Navy in the world our ships are getting older and we really got out of that businessThe President announced that the administration would build two multimission national security vessels at the historic Philadelphia shipyard and signalled that Washington was prepared to purchase ships built overseas while rebuilding Americas own industrial capacityWere going to probably look at some of these companies that are coming in from South Korea and other places and theyre working with us on ships and were going to also buy some ships that are made outside of the area Trump saidHe said many American shipyards had disappeared after being converted into waterfront real estate developments leaving the country behind in naval construction You know we used to make a ship a day and now were a laggard in that department Trump said A lot of our shipyards were sold for real estate projects on the waterSouth Koreas Hanwha Defense USA which now owns the Philadelphia shipyard said it plans to dramatically expand US production capacity Our shipyard in Korea puts out about one ship a week Hanwha Defense USA CEO Michael Coulter said We have a plan to bring that capability to PhiladelphiaCoulter said the company intends to transform Philadelphia into a major centre for American naval construction Ships win battles shipyards win wars he said It is going to be the home to make American shipbuilding great againGeneral Dynamics also announced a 25 billion investment in Rhoads Industries to expand production supporting US Navy submarine programmes with the project expected to create about 1500 jobs in Pennsylvania Company President Danny Deep said the investment would strengthen supply chains across the state and support production of Virginiaclass and Columbiaclass submarinesDuring his remarks Trump criticised rising costs and engineering decisions in previous naval programmes arguing that future warships should emphasise reliability and faster production over unnecessary complexityWe have the best quality in the world but we need a little more speed he said while calling for increased production of submarines missiles and other military systemsThe shipbuilding initiative forms part of the administrations broader effort to rebuild the US defence industrial base through expanded manufacturing publicprivate investment and closer cooperation with allied defence companiesOfficials at the summit said modernising shipyards and increasing naval production capacity would be essential to supporting future military requirements and maintaining Americas maritime advantageThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever