“With Spain, France and Holland, we will send naval assets to protect Cyprus in the next few days,” Guido Crosetto told Italy’s parliament in a statement.

An Italian navy vessel able to reach Cyprus quickly would be the Spartaco Schergat, a FREMM frigate which is off the coast of Sicily in the Mediterranean and is due to conclude its involvement in the NATO Dynamic Manta exercise on Friday. It will however need to return to base in Sicily for refueling before a mission to Cyprus.

One defense official, who declined to be named, said a better option would however be one of Italy’s larger Horizon-class destroyers, given their longer range radar. The challenge is their location: The Andrea Doria is off the coast of Norway while the Caio Duilio is undergoing regular maintenance at La Spezia in Italy.

Nations sending vessels to Cyprus would not necessarily need to operate under one national command but could cooperate, the official said.

Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni spoke by phone with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, to discuss security in the Gulf and Cyprus, her office said.

Macron announced Tuesday that he ordered the Charles de Gaulle carrier strike group, deployed to northern Europe for exercises, to the Mediterranean.

The move comes as the war in Iran risks spilling over to Europe’s southeastern edge. For example, RAF Akrotiri, a British military base in southern Cyprus that has previously served as as a hub for U.S. and U.K. Middle East aerial operations, was targeted by Iranian strike drones this week.

Close Cyprus ally Greece has already sent two frigates to the island.

The French naval strike group is scheduled to arrive in the Mediterranean late this week or early next week, French Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautrin told RTL radio on Thursday.

The Spanish frigate Cristóbal Colón has already joined the Charles the Gaulle formation on its way to Cyprus, Spanish defense officials said Thursday.

“The ‘Cristóbal Colón’ is our most technologically advanced frigate. Its mission in the Mediterranean will be to offer protection and air defense, thus complementing the capabilities of our Patriot battery deployed in Turkey,” reads a Spanish ministry of defense statement. “It will also be on standby to support any evacuation of civilian personnel who may be affected by the conflict.”

Meanwhile, the British Type 45 destroyer Dragon, announced by U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer as the chosen ship to help secure the country’s Cyprus base, was still being readied for the snap deployment on Wednesday, the BBC reported.

Fresh out of maintenance, the ongoing loading of ammunition means the Dragon will likely be stuck in Portsmouth until next week, according to the report.

The Dutch frigate Evertsen is also part of the group of ships heading to the Mediterranean, but defense officials in the Netherlands have yet to decide what the vessel will be tasked to do once there.

German defense officials appear to be in no rush to consider sending ships supporting a naval Cyprus protection mission in response to the Iran war fallout, though chancellor Merz has said Berlin would assist “in preventative measures.”

Regional assistance and NATO defense plans for the region currently add up to a sufficient degree of preparedness, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

Meloni said on Thursday that Italy would be sending air defense systems to protect Gulf states. “Italy, like the U.K., France and Germany, aim to send help to the Gulf states, and we clearly talking about air defense,” she said.

Speculation is mounting in Italy that Rome will send a Samp-T air defense system.

Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris and Linus Höller in Berlin contributed to this report.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the strike during a Pentagon press briefing on Operation Epic Fury alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.

“Yesterday, in the Indian Ocean ... an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said. “Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II.”

The identity of the fast-attack boat was not revealed, as is custom for operational security surrounding submarine operations.

The strike occurred off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, according to Reuters, which would indicate the action occurred in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility.

The IRIS Dena, a Moudge-class frigate assigned to the Southern Fleet of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy, was in the region after reportedly taking part in a naval drill in the Bay of Bengal.

Sri Lankan Foreign minister Vijitha Herath said 180 people were on board the IRIS Dena. Thirty-two people were subsequently rescued by Sri Lankan naval personnel.

Commander Buddhika Sampath, a Sri Lankan navy spokesman, said the rescue effort was also recovering bodies from the scene.

“For the first time since 1945, a United States Navy fast attack submarine has sunk an enemy combatant ship using a single Mk-48 torpedo to achieve immediate effect, sending the warship to the bottom of the sea,” Caine said during the press briefing Wednesday.

“This is an incredible demonstration of America’s global reach. To hunt, find and kill an out-of-area deployer is something that only the United States can do at this type of scale.”

Caine added that, to date, the U.S. has hit over 2,000 total targets across Iran and destroyed more than 20 of the Islamic Republic’s naval vessels.

The campaign has “effectively neutralized, at this point in time, Iran’s major naval presence in theater,” he said.

Strikes on infrastructure and naval capability by the vast assembly of U.S. forces in the region are expected to continue over the next 24 to 48 hours, Caine noted.

“We’ll continue to assess our progress against the military objectives,” he said.

With the Strait of Hormuz closed and the Suez Canal and Red Sea threatened, France is also working on a coalition to pool assets, including military, that will allow shipping traffic to resume, Macron said in the televised speech.

“Faced with this unstable situation and the uncertainties of the days ahead, I have given orders for the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, its air assets, and its escort of frigates to set course for the Mediterranean,” Macron said.

The nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle and its escorts are being rerouted from the Baltic and the Northern Atlantic, where the carrier group had been set to participate in multiple NATO missions. The air group embarked on France’s only carrier typically consists of Rafale jets and E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft, as well as several helicopters.

The deployed carrier strike group included the Italian destroyer Andrea Doria as well as the French frigate L’Amiral Ronarc’h, according to the French Navy. The group also included the frigates Alsace and Chevalier Paul, as well as the oiler Jacques Chevallier, according to French media reports.

Macron said France has economic interests to protect, with oil prices, natural gas prices and international trade “profoundly” disrupted by the war between the U.S. and Israel against Iran.

“We are taking the initiative to build a coalition to pool resources, including military resources, to resume and secure traffic in these maritime routes that are essential to the global economy,” Macron said. “This is what we were able to do several months ago in the Red Sea. This is what we must do there today.”

French forces, which are deployed across several bases in the Middle East, downed drones “in legitimate defense” from the very first hours of the conflict between the U.S. and Israel with Iran, to protect the airspace of its allies, Macron said. France in recent hours sent additional Rafale jets, air-defense systems and radars to the region, the president said.

“It’s crucial that we ensure freedom of movement in the Strait of Hormuz because we are all affected,” retired Air Force Gen. Patrick Dutartre said on French television.

With European Union member Cyprus also struck in recent days, France will also send additional air-defense assets to the island, as well as the air-defense frigate Languedoc, which should arrive off the coast of Cyprus as early as this evening, Macron said.

While out on a patrol in Oresund, a narrow strait that separates Denmark and Sweden, a Swedish Navy ship detected a suspicious unmanned aerial system approaching the French vessel.

“Following the observation, the armed forces took countermeasures to disrupt the suspected drone – contact with it was subsequently lost, but no other ones have been observed,” the Swedish Armed Forces said in a statement.

Speaking to local media outlet SVT Nyheter, Minister of Defense Pål Jonson said that it is likely the drone was Russian, as a Russian military ship was detected operating in the immediate vicinity of the Feb. 26 incident.

Jonson called the episode a probable “violation of Swedish airspace,” and an investigation was launched to determine whether a breach was committed.

The Swedish Armed Forces declined to provide further details.

Sweden announced last month that it is undertaking a major revamp of its unmanned capabilities, including the procurement of remote-controlled electronic warfare systems that consist of drone detection sensors, which could be based on ships or ground units.

While authorities have not yet confirmed the identity of Russian the ship, several open-source maritime observers compiled a list of Russian-flagged vessels spotted in the area roughly around the same time. These included the U.S.-sanctioned Sparta IV, a cargo ship flying the Russian flag, known for transporting military equipment between Syria and Russia.

According to Guillaume Vernet, spokesman for the French General Staff, the Swedish countermeasures used to repel the drone away from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle “worked perfectly” and did not disrupt the flagship’s activities.

The presence of the aircraft carrier is linked to ongoing and upcoming NATO exercise activities and deployments, including the Orion 2026 exercises in the North Atlantic and Baltic regions, which began earlier this month and will run until March.

The vessel is the first unmanned submarine developed by an Israeli defense company. It is the product of a joint venture with Atlas, a subsidiary of Germany’s TKMS, the manufacturer behind the Israeli Navy’s submarine fleet.

A BlueWhale was delivered in a ceremony held at the German naval base in Eckernförde after a series of tests carried out by the German Navy in the Baltic Sea.

None of the parties involved specified the number of vessels the German sea service eventually stands to get, or the scope of the deal.

IAI reported at the end of November 2024 that the German Navy had completed testing the new drone as part of the “Navy 2035+” program, which is a service initiative for rapidly testing and adopting new technologies under real-world conditions.

The BlueWhale travels at 7 knots underwater, and the Israeli company states that the unmanned submarine can sustain continuous operation of 2-3 weeks depending on the mission profile. It is equipped with surface and sub-surface sensors and can be transportable by land, air or sea in a 40-foot shipping container.

The joint IAI-TKMS announcement notes that the vessel’s envisioned missions include unmanned anti-submarine warfare and covert maritime operations.

“The vehicle is capable of conducting reconnaissance operations, detecting targets above and below the sea surface, collecting acoustic information, and locating sea mines on the seabed,” the statement reads. “It acts as an extended sensor arm for manned platforms.”

The sale of the BlueWhale is seen in Israel as a step toward deepening defense cooperation with Germany amid the supply of the Arrow 3 air defense system, also made by IAI, Israel’s largest defense deal ever.

In the maritime sector, Israel has relied for years on TKMS, which supplies Dolphin AIP submarines and Sa’ar 6 ships.

In about four years, the German company is scheduled to begin delivering three Decker-class submarines ordered in 2022.

The new submarine’s nomenclature is Type 09V, or also commonly referred to as the Type 095. Partially constructed, the boat could launch within the coming year.

After the new submarine showed up in high-resolution satellite imagery, Naval News was first to report it on Feb. 12. Its estimated submerged displacement is 9,000-10,000 tons.

Destined for the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), the incoming Type 09V platform is emblematic of China’s extensive development efforts and a construction spree of nuclear-powered submarines.

Rick Joe, an expert on the Chinese military, estimates the sea service currently has in service the following SSNs: one to two original Type 091 SSNs if they have not already been retired, plus two Type 09III, four Type 09IIIA and two to three Type 09IIIB attack submarines.

Joe surmises another 5-6 Type 09IIIB SSNs are being fitted out or are undergoing sea trials. This amounts to three new SSNs being launched annually, compared to a rate of 1.1 to 1.3 boats per year in the United States.

As for nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), the analyst assesses the PLAN has six Type 09IV boats and possibly another one or two being fitted out after being launched in recent years.

Clean-sheet design

Asked to assess the new SSN, Joe noted it is wider than the preceding Type 09III family at around 40 feet (12m) versus 36 feet (11m). He also listed new likely innovations such as X-shaped rudders, hull-mounted and retractable diving planes to improve speed and agility, and a pumpjet propulsor.

The boat is also rumored to be the first Chinese submarine without a double hull; instead it might use either a single or hybrid hull.

The 09V, measuring approximately 360 feet (110m) long, has universal vertical launch system (VLS) cells – estimated to be eight in number. Like the latest American Virginia-class SSNs, each cell is thought to contain all-up round canisters, containing perhaps three missiles each in China’s case.

Flurry of construction

It is difficult to say when the first Type 09V will enter service, but it could be as far away as 2029 after fitting out and extensive sea trials.

China often builds two submarines of a new type before commencing series production, to allow problems to be ironed out. That timing suggests construction of the incumbent Type 09IIIB will continue into the early 2030s.

The U.S. Navy holds an advantage over China when it comes to submarine technologies and anti-submarine warfare. However, as the Type 09V demonstrates, Beijing is working hard to close this gap.

China has sufficient production capacity at Bohai Shipyard. Its Eastern Assembly Hall has space for twelve assembly slots measuring 144m long, while the newer Southern Assembly Hall has eight assembly slots measuring 157.5m long. In theory, these halls could simultaneously accommodate construction of 20 SSN-sized boats.

China’s next-generation Type 09VI SSBN is expected to take a number of technologies from the latest SSN as well.

Accompanying weapons

One new anti-ship missile that could potentially arm the Type 09V is the YJ-19 hypersonic missile unveiled at China’s military parade in September 2025.

Joe described the hypersonic YJ-19 as an “air-breathing scramjet cruise missile sized for submarine torpedo tubes (553mm). It certainly is likely to offer quite a boost in anti-surface strike capability, especially as they don’t have to be launched via VLS, but can in theory be launched from any submarine with torpedo tubes and adequate integration with the combat management system.”

This month, the PLAN revealed that it had accepted the YJ-19 for service on its Type 039B conventional submarines. This makes China the first country in the world to arm diesel-electric submarines with hypersonic weapons.

Fincantieri will work with Bollinger Shipyards, which was previously given a contract for engineering and long-lead-time procurement on the new Medium Landing Ship (LSM) for the Marines.

The Navy has also issued a request for proposals for a Vessel Construction Manager (VCM) to oversee the program and act as a buffer between the Navy and the yards, the Naval Sea Systems Command Office said.

The VCM, which will be picked in mid-2026, will then choose a yard to build a further three ships in a base contract for a program which is expected to ultimately deliver 35 vessels.

The use of a VCM follows a series of botched, Navy-led construction programs, notably Constellation, where a series of changes in requirements left the vessel overweight and three years behind schedule.

“The VCM approach not only accelerates construction timelines but also strengthens our industrial base by engaging multiple shipyards,” said Rear Adm. Brian Metcalf, program executive officer, ships.

“By providing a mature, ‘build-to-print’ design and empowering a VCM to manage production, we are streamlining oversight for this acquisition.

This approach accelerates the timeline and strengthens our industrial base, ensuring we have the capacity and expertise needed for sustained maritime advantage,” he added.

The Navy said that the VCM would be “responsible for managing the entire construction program, from the design phase through to vessel delivery and post-delivery support.”

It added, “The VCM will manage production across multiple shipyards in parallel using proven commercial shipbuilding practices, with significantly fewer Navy personnel than a traditional shipbuilding program would require.”

The Naval Sea Systems Command Office added that the Navy would provide a “mature” design based on Damen Naval’s LST 100 vessel.

Last November, the Navy canceled four Constellation vessels it had contracted Fincantieri to build at its Wisconsin yard, while leaving it to complete two vessels it was already building.

Congress has added $800 million to the new program to help Marinette Marine shift from its Constellation work to working on the LSM.

The LSM will fill a gap between the Navy’s short-range landing craft and larger amphibious ships.

In a new business plan covering 2026-2030, the Italian state-controlled yard said it expected annual revenue to rise from €9 billion in 2025 to €12.5 billion in 2030, while it will book €50 billion worth of orders over the period globally, including in the United States, adding to a current €60 billion order backlog.

By 2035, revenue will double, reaching €18 billion, the firm said.

Fincantieri has long split its focus between navy ships, offshore vessels and cruise ships, spreading technology between the sectors and relying on upticks in one business area to balance dips in others.

As conflicts rage around the world and as pressure is placed on Europe to re-arm, pushing governments open their wallets, Fincantieri is enjoying robust defense orders, starting with a supply of new ships and submarines to the Italian navy.

US Navy nixes Constellation frigate program after two ships half-built

As foreign customers place orders, including PPA vessels to Indonesia and Fremm frigates to Egypt, Fincantieri has handed over vessels being built for Italy to accelerate deliveries, then added new orders to fill the gap for the Italian navy.

More work can be expected from Italy as the country signs up for €14.9 billion in EU loans to boost defense spending to reach NATO’s new target of 5%of GDP.

CEO Pierroberto Folgiero has meanwhile bet on the undersea business with a string of acquisitions including buying torpedo maker WASS from Italy’s Leonardo last year.

This week WASS signed a €200 million deal with Saudi Arabia to sell its MU90 Lightweight Torpedo.

The new orders are balancing the cancelling of Constellation frigate orders in the United States which Fincantieri was working on at its U.S. yard.

To handle new work, Fincantieri’s new business plan envisages the doubling of defense production capacity at its Italian yards, while part of its cruise ship work is relocated to Romania.

“The Defense segment plays a central role in our strategy: the expected increase in demand, together with the doubling of production capacity across our Italian shipyards, will enable us to further strengthen our positioning within the major national and international programs,” said Folgiero in a statement released with the industrial plan.

Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to reflect that the company expects some of the projected new business to come from the United States.

While the 2026 budget allotted $27.2 billion dollars for the Navy to build 17 ships, Phelan said President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2027 defense budget of $1.5 trillion could bump that number up to at least 34, with a large contingent of auxiliary and support ships.

“It is an area that we are in grave need of upgrading and I think the president has correctly addressed that in the budget,” Phelan said.

The Navy secretary said that the effort would help rebuild the maritime industrial base by focusing on the construction of ships that are easier to build than combat ships, which require complicated radar systems and nuclear propulsion systems.

The 2026 budget allocated money for vessels that include two Virginia-class fast-attack submarines, one Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, three medium landing ships and one T-AGOS ocean surveillance ship, according to the House Appropriations Committee.

US Navy leaders embrace Trump-class battleships

The news came as Phelan answered audience questions after delivering opening remarks that criticized the Biden administration for underfunding the shipbuilding industry and praised the arrival of the Golden Fleet.

“Between FY20 and FY24, the prior administration consistently underfunded Navy shipbuilding, requesting a cumulative $127 billion while Congress recognized the shortfall and enacted nearly $142 billion — a $15 billion gap that would have represented ships not built and capabilities not delivered,” Phelan said.

The Golden Fleet, which Trump announced in December 2025, will include two so-called Trump-class battleships. The president has claimed the vessels will be the biggest and fastest battleships in the world, 100 times more powerful than any ship ever built.

The Golden Fleet is about moving faster, building smarter and delivering capabilities now, Phelan said, adding that the initiative also aims to harness unmanned and artificial intelligence systems.

The destroyer USS Truxtun and the supply ship USNS Supply collided on Wednesday as the warship was getting a new load of supplies. The maneuver typically has the vessels sailing parallel, usually within hundreds of feet, while fuel and supplies are transferred across the gap via hoses and cables.

The military statement said two personnel reported minor injuries after the collision and that both were in stable condition. The two ships now are sailing safely, according to Southern Command.

The USS Truxtun is a recent addition to the large naval presence in the Caribbean that stands at 12 ships, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and several amphibious assault ships carrying thousands of Marines.

The Republican administration built up the largest military presence in the region in generations before carrying out a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug boats since September, seizing sanctioned oil tankers and conducting a surprise raid that captured Venezuela’s then-president, Nicolás Maduro.

The USS Truxtun left its home port in Norfolk, Virginia, on Feb. 3. The destroyer had to return to port for several days to conduct “an emergent equipment repair” and it ultimately set sail for the Caribbean on Feb. 6, according to a Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operational details.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the collision, which is rare for warships. The Navy’s most recent collision occurred in February 2025 when the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman collided with a merchant vessel just outside the Suez Canal near Port Said, Egypt. That resulted in minor damage to the Truman but no injuries.

An investigation released in December revealed that as the aircraft carrier was running behind schedule, the officer navigating the ship drove it at an unsafely high speed.

As a merchant ship moved into a collision path with the carrier, the officer in charge did not take enough action to move out of danger and the ship also was traveling so fast that it would have needed almost a mile and a half to come to a stop after halting the engines, the report found.

New naval designs increasingly incorporate containerized payloads, and the commanders of the United States, Italian, Dutch and British navies cited advantages including mission flexibility, quickly getting firepower on the water, and at-sea replenishment.

Italy’s new Thaon di Revel-class patrol frigates have been designed to carry containerized mission modules, while the Netherlands announced a class of multi-role support ships mounting containers loaded with anything from air-defense missiles to electronic-warfare kit or assault drones. The United States Navy has said its new frigate will be fitted with containerized mission packages.

“All our future ships, they will be specifically designed for this kind of capability,” said Adm. Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, chief of staff of the Italian Navy, speaking at the Paris Naval Conference. “The primary role of the ship will be the same, but the ship needs to have this capability to be ready to attack different missions.”

The modularity of the patrol frigate “was a great idea” that the Italian Navy is now trying to apply to all its construction, according to Berutti Bergotto. He said the navy has also experimented with fitting different containers with different payloads on the deck of a commercial vessel.

“If you look at modularity, it’s like Lego, building blocks are already there, you just need to put them together,” said Vice Adm. Harold Liebregs, the commander of the Royal Netherlands Navy, on the sidelines of the conference. “But keep it simple. Don’t over-integrate.”

The Netherlands has said its modular support vessels will be able to mount a containerized version of the Barak ER surface-to-air interceptor from Israel Aerospace Industries, as well as the company’s Harop long-range loitering munitions.

Liebregs said introducing modularity is sometimes “easier said than done, because not every Lego block now is good enough,” but modules such as air-defense missile systems are available and ready to be plugged in. He said navies have to accept they will have to learn along the way, “so just start somewhere as soon as possible.”

The Dutch navy needs to be ready for war by 2028, and “one of my main challenges is to bring more firepower to sea,” Liebregs said. The multi-role support vessel concept is one possible solution, and fitting such a ship with a container full of Barak missiles would quickly provide some “very capable air-defense capability,” allowing for mass and dispersed operations.

Such ships would have reduced crews of six to eight sailors, and roles might also include escorting Russian vessels in the North Sea, “saving a lot of very expensive warships,” according to the Dutch commander.

“It’s an affordable way to augment our fleet,” Liebregs said. “These kinds of ships are very adaptable, and it fits very well to short-cycled innovation, the thing we very much need.”

The United Kingdom’s Royal Navy is running its own modular mission-system program, and is now trialing what it calls “mission pods” that were produced in the autumn of last year, said Gen. Gwyn Jenkins, the United Kingdom’s First Sea Lord and chief of naval staff. He said standardization of data and power cable connections is key.

“We’re all on this journey, I think,” Jenkins said. “As long as you’ve got commonality across the system, then we can position those mission pods around our different naval bases with allies, give ourselves the ability to come back in and change pods, go back out to sea in any format, replenish at sea with different pods.”

Modularity will allow naval vessels to adapt to future threats as well as new technology, such as the on-board power required for future direct-energy weapons, Berutti Bergotto said. He said navies also need to be able to make changes during ship construction to take into account emerging threats and remain relevant at sea.

He cited his command of the Horizon-class destroyer Andrea Doria, which was commissioned in 2010 with cathode-ray tube monitors because that was the available technology six years earlier.

“When you commission the ship, this ship lasts for 20 years, pretty much,” the Italian admiral said. “You cannot have, after one year, an old ship.”

The U.S. attempted to include modularity in the Littoral Combat Ship program but failed to predict the complexity of building effective modules, and under-invested in that area, according to U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle.

“We’ve learned from that mistake,” Caudle said. “Going forward with our small surface combatant, we’re going to put more energy into this from the acquisition side, the research and development, and how to containerize payloads that we need” to make that ship type effective.

“When you put that ship to sea with modular force packages, things that can be containerized, from ordnance to unmanned systems to towed arrays — the sky’s the limit on what you can modularize there on that platform,” Caudle said. “Then we can build them quickly, fill them.”

Modularity will allow the U.S. Navy to tailor the “high-low mix” to create force packages that might be more suitable to deal with a threat than a carrier strike group or amphibious strike group, according to Caudle.

Caudle said modularity goes beyond payloads, and can also boost U.S. shipbuilding capacity, with the admiral citing large surface ships such as liquid natural gas tankers that are built in modules. The U.S. has historically built its combat ships as a single unit, with the Virginia-class submarines the first move into modularity, according to the sea service chief.

“You’re going to see us extend that methodology to all of our ships going forward,” Caudle said. “What that does is allow more shipyards to enter the actual shipbuilding game and add capacity to an oversubscribed yard structure by tailoring what they can do to add value to how we build our ships and deliver them quickly.”

The navy is experimenting with its simulator drills to put crews in “increasingly stressful situations,” said Capt. Jérôme Henry, the head of training for the navy’s surface personnel, at the Paris Naval Conference this week. Henry said he’s drawing on past experience as commander of the frigate Alsace, which came under attack multiple times in the Red Sea, to “toughen up our crews.”

“What I saw in the Red Sea is that when you’re under intense stress, people react more or less well but in any case, you lose some of your composure, you get what’s called tunnel vision,” Henry told Defense News on the sidelines of the conference. “If we’re going to be in high-intensity combat, our crews need to be ready for that stress, and the question is, how are we going to prepare them?”

French, UK naval chiefs urge dramatic changes in warship design

Training tweaks include crews going for a run or doing push-ups right before stepping into weapon simulators to get heart rates up, creating sensory overload by adding noise, smoke and drone swarms to simulations, and adding weapon malfunctions in drills, said Henry, who took on his current role last year.

Henry says he adopted the idea of stress drills from the French Navy’s special forces, the Commandos Marine, and is seeking to find out how American and Israeli forces include stress in their training.

The goal for now is to dial up stress levels “as high as possible” to ensure that reflex actions are always the right ones, the training chief said. Henry said the challenge is the difficulty of putting people under such stress “that they feel like their final hour has come.”

The training division is trying to create the most disruptive environment possible in its simulators, so that personnel including gunners and missile operators “can mechanize their actions” to ensure they’ll be able to perform in combat whatever the situation, according to Henry.

“I know what it feels like to take a missile on the nose at four times the speed of sound,” Henry said. “So we know where we start to get stressed, we know we have to prepare for that.”

The most important lesson learned from the Red Sea is the need to be ready at all times, Adm. Harold Liebregs, commander of the Royal Netherlands Navy, told Defense News.

“The time when we could leave port, then build up and then see what mission we were going to do, that has changed,” Liebregs said. “It’s about training, but also about buildup. It’s about everything becoming more and more realistic, and it starts with having your war plans ready.”

Liebregs said the officer who commanded the support ship Karel Doorman during its deployment in the Red Sea, Paul Bijleveld, is now the navy’s commander for Sea Training, “so all the lessons we learned there, he’ll take onboard. Perhaps that is no coincidence.”

Western navies lack combat experiences in terms of high-intensity naval war, said Capt. Bryan McCavour, deputy assistant chief of staff for information warfare at the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy, who spoke on a panel with Henry. With fewer and fewer platforms in national fleets, ongoing problems with ship maintenance and availability, training is consistently getting compressed, he said.

“If we’re going to engender that war-fighting spirit and maintain it, and have that culture as a decisive factor in battle, we need to invest more time in high-end war-fighting training than I think we currently do,” McCavour said.

McCavour said it’s been longer since the Falklands War than between that conflict and World War II, and “combat-ready naval forces in that sense maybe don’t exist today in the way we think, because it’s been a very long time since we had a high-end conflict.”

He said Russia was reminded of that lesson with the sinking of the cruiser Moskva in the Black Sea, and Western forces need to take that into account when they look at responding in the South China Sea or the High North around the Kola Peninsula.

The Red Sea was also “a little bit the rediscovery” of low-end threats, with renewed focus on small-caliber weapons and cannons, and a pipeline of defensive layers including jamming, light missiles and laser-guided rockets, according to Henry, who directed the navy’s annual Wildfire drone exercise to focus on saturation as well as the risk of friendly fire in a busy environment.

“When you have a lot of things flying around you, and you open fire with other friendly units, we saw in the Red Sea that mistakes can be made,” Henry said. “So we’re working on that.”

The French Navy is furthermore training for combat while minimizing radio emissions, relying on adversary emissions to build situational awareness, according to Henry. The force is working to cut reliance on satellite positioning, helped by improved inertial-navigation systems as well as astral sights using the stars for positioning.

Henry mentioned the ‘Back to the ‘80s’ exercises by the French carrier strike group, which entails forgoing satellite communications and instead using HF and UHF radio for comms, “and above all, to be more frugal in our exchanges.”

Cyber warfare is the prime example of a threat likely to deprive naval forces of capabilities “at the worst possible moment,” according to Capt. Florian El-Ahdab, commanding officer of the French frigate Languedoc. He said preparing for eventualities such as loss of connectivity requires ‘Back to 80s’ type exercises and placing forces in situations of “great discomfort.”

“Today’s sailors reflect today’s society, so if I took your smartphone away today and told you to go somewhere, I’m not sure you’d feel very comfortable,” said El-Ahdab. He said “it’s the same thing” for the navy.

“If you take away all the tools available to the commander today, and all the amazing tools that are currently being developed, if I suddenly tell you that all of that is no longer available for one reason or another, how would you respond?” El-Ahdab asked. “That seems like a very, very good challenge to explore.”

The port call by the USS Cincinnati came amid a warming of relations with Washington after a decade of sour ties that took an unwanted toll on Southeast Asia, as Phnom Penh eschewed the West and embraced Beijing, its money, its influence and did its bidding.

“China will be quietly displeased and doubtful of Cambodia’s real intentions,” Deth Sok Udom, professor of international relations at Paragon International University in Phnom Penh, said. “But they are unlikely to voice that out openly.

“That said, it would be misleading to interpret this visit as a Cambodian strategic shift toward the U.S. at the expense of its relations with China, which continues to be a significant trade partner and investor to the Kingdom,” he added.

But Thai political commentator Pravit Rojanaphruk suggested Cambodia may have pushed too far in welcoming the Cincinnati at Ream which, he said, challenged China’s regional influence, raising the prospect of diplomatic and military repercussions.

“As China regards Cambodia and Southeast Asia as its backyard, it will likely respond to the encroachment of the U.S., not just diplomatically but militarily.

“We can expect China will try to neutralize U.S. influence in Cambodia and teach Cambodia a lesson or two in the months ahead, otherwise the U.S. might do something similar with Laos, which also has a special relationship with China,” he said.

The base

China rebuilt Ream within three years, tearing down U.S. funded facilities built by a dilapidated pier used as a supply stop. By early 2025, it boasted a 650-meter pier capable of docking warships, a 5,000-tonne dry dock, and a 1,000-tonne slipway with logistical facilities.

Satellite imaging by BlackSky noted in 2023 near-exact similarities between an angled deep-water pier at Ream and a Chinese military pier in Djibouti, capable of supporting all Chinese navy vessels including the Type 003 Fujian aircraft carrier.

The base itself covers 190 acres. But surrounding upgrades, including six-lane highways and a refurbished airport, extended its size.

“Cambodia’s receptivity to hosting China’s second overseas naval port increases Beijing’s strategic ability to project military power into the Indian Ocean,” said Craig Singleton, deputy director of the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in the BlackSky report.

As China invested billions of dollars in Cambodia, Phnom Penh emerged as Beijing’s steadfast ally and proxy within the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), a bloc which the West sees as a central-convener designed to balance great power rivalry in the Indo-Pacific.

Friends and proxies

Since 2012, Cambodia was China’s designated spoiler. It inflicted delay after delay upon the Code of Conduct (CoC) designed to manage maritime disputes between ASEAN and Beijing in the South China Sea, a perennial flashpoint in global geopolitics.

China viewed the CoC as a threat, preferring a divide-and-conquer strategy through negotiating territorial disputes with the 10 members of ASEAN on an individual basis.

According to Deth Sok Udom, the position effectively undermined the U.S. vision of a free and open Indio-Pacific.

In 2017 Phnom Penh ended joint U.S.-Cambodian Angkor Sentinel military exercises and later accused the Obama administration of backing attempts by opposition politicians to oust the then-Prime Minister Hun Sen.

A crackdown on all forms of dissent in the country ensued. Three years later, Cambodia again upset ASEAN and the West, this time by negotiating with the regime in Myanmar – where China covets sustainable deposits of rare earths – after the military seized power in a coup d’etat.

Relations then struck their lowest ebb after an American military attaché was invited to inspect Ream but denied full access, and Washington imposed an arms embargo on Cambodia in late 2021.

But there were concerns. Cambodia was too much in China’s camp, and that didn’t sit well with Hun Manet, a West Point graduate who was being groomed to take over the job as prime minister from his father Hun Sen in 2023.

“The U.S. has repeatedly expressed concerns about potential Chinese operations and future use of the naval base despite Cambodia’s denial,” Deth Sok Udom said.

“Hun Manet’s educational background in the West, most likely served as a factor for strategic considerations as to how much he could shift Cambodia’s foreign policy trajectory hitherto seen as deep in China’s orbit.”

Balancing act

Two Chinese corvettes rotate out of Ream, but to dispel claims the port was a Chinese base, Cambodia declared Ream open to all the world’s navies. Visits by Japan, Vietnam and Russia followed, while Australian and Canadian warships docked at nearby Sihanoukville.

Still, Jennifer Parker, an Australian maritime security expert and principal of Barrier Strategic Advisory, noted: “China clearly enjoys preferential access, including through its infrastructure investment and support at the base.”

While China was rebuilding Ream, its cozy ties with Cambodia were being compromised on another front with the arrival of Chinese crime syndicates which industrialized human trafficking and scam rings and were raking in billions of illicit dollars.

The activity took hold in nearby Sihanoukville and spread to the border areas, preying on Chinese and angering Beijing, which cut its funding in 2024 amid suspicions that Cambodian business leaders were harboring the syndicates.

The following year, in early 2025, Thailand initiated a Chinese-backed cross-border crackdown which erupted into an undeclared war that required mediation by President Donald Trump, topping a tumultuous U.S.-Cambodian relationship spanning over a decade.

Cambodia nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, and a conflict resolution agreement prompted Phnom Penh to join Trump’s idea of a “Board of Peace” despite what Deth Sok Udom said was China’s preference for the country to work through “existing international bodies such as the United Nations.”

At its recent foreign ministers meeting, ASEAN announced the CoC will finally proceed. Nor will it recognize the recently Chinese-backed, stage-managed elections in Myanmar, designed to legitimize the junta’s rule amid a civil war that to date has claimed about 90,000 lives.

The port call by the USS Cincinnati strengthened the whiff of a turning point for Phnom Penh and Washington. Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, announced the Angkor-Sentinel exercises would resume later this year or next and that the U.S. arm embargo was lifted.

“Our partnership is on a strong upward trajectory,” he told a press conference in Ream on Jan. 26 after a meeting with Hun Manet. “We hope for more opportunities to work closely together.”

Altered course

“The visit demonstrates that Ream Naval Base is not exclusively a Chinese facility, nor closed to foreign naval vessels as some commentators have suggested,” analyst Parker said.

“Cambodia remains heavily dependent on China, but renewed engagement with the United States points to an attempt to introduce greater strategic balance, even if that process remains cautious and incomplete,” she added.

Gavin Greenwood, a consultant from Hong Kong-based A2 Global Risk, urged caution with the arrival of Cincinnati, a littoral combat ship (LSC) with a tarnished reputation for structural defects, at a Chinese 'intelligence outpost’.

“The Cincinnati was actually carrying out the role it was partly intended to perform – showing the flag, maintaining a presence, sending a signal of U.S. ‘reach and resolve’ at minimal cost,” he said.

“The more revealing test of the status of US-Cambodia relations would have been had a major U.S. Navy warship visited Ream.”

“The objective is to understand the availability of systems that can provide data and services related to the remote sensing of nighttime scenes from space to inform potential future collaborations and acquisitions for a technology demonstration,” according to the RFI.

The Navy is looking for space-based sensors on sensor-ready platforms.

“This RFI is focused exclusively on electro-optical (EO) systems,” the service emphasized. Specifically, the Navy is interested in systems that have reached a Technology Readiness Level, or TRL, of 6 or higher. TRL 6 indicates a system that has progressed to the stage of having a functioning prototype.

The spectral response and range of each satellite’s sensors are among the details that the Navy is asking contractors to provide. In addition, companies should specify whether sensors are panchromatic or multispectral, and how many frames per second the imaging systems takes.

The Naval Research Laboratory is also concerned about whether a commercial satellite can perform onboard processing of sensor data.

Not surprisingly given that the Navy is dealing with commercial providers rather than government-owned systems, the Naval Research Laboratory also wants to know how users can submit tasking requests for the satellite, and how long those requests will take to be fulfilled.

“How is the collected data processed and/or exploited (both on-board and on the ground)?” the RFI asked. “How is the final data product disseminated to the end-user, and in what format is it delivered?

Security is also key. In addition to the level of security for data links and the satellite’s onboard systems, contractors must state whether their ground stations are located in the continental United States.

The U.S. government already conducts nighttime Earth observation for civilian purposes, notably the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS, on NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites. These platforms “acquire global daily measurements of nocturnal visible and near-infrared (NIR) light that can be used for Earth system science and applications studies,” according to NASA. The data is used for estimating population, monitoring disasters and understanding the impacts of increased light pollution.

However, nighttime satellite imagery can also be useful to the military and intelligence agencies. For example, VIIRS has detected the wakes left by ships sailing in the North Sea at 2:30 a.m., a capability that could be used for tracking and targeting of warships. That’s because vessels leave “‘ship tracks — narrow clouds brightened by small airborne pollution particles emitted from the vessels,” NASA said. “Water vapor condenses around the tiny particles of pollution to form thin, winding clouds.”

Night imaging from space can also detect lights on the ground that might indicate whether strikes against an adversary’s electrical grid have been successful or, for example, track wildfires that could hamper ground and air operations.

The RFI deadline is Feb. 22.

Turkish shipbuilder STM had signed a contract to build two Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment (AOR) and Logistics Support Ships in Lisbon on Dec. 17, 2024.

This marked Turkey’s first military ship export to a European Union and NATO member state.

The keel-laying ceremony was attended by the defense ministers, commanders of naval forces and air forces of both nations.

Designed to support joint force projection, amphibious operations and humanitarian missions, the ships will also include facilities for helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), with dedicated hangars for drones. Their modular design and integrated communication systems enable multi-mission adaptability, including command and control functions, medical support and disaster relief.

In addition to providing logistical support, transferring fuel and cargo at sea, the ships will have the capacity to transport armored vehicles, enabling them to support joint and amphibious operations. With a stern ramp, each vessel will be capable of carrying up to 20 light tactical armored vehicles.

The ships were approved as part of the Military Programming Law 2023–24, with the aim of strengthening Portugal’s naval forces and enabling its vessels to remain at sea for longer periods.

Speaking at the ceremony, STM General Manager Özgür Güleryüz stated that the construction of the second ship is planned to start later this year, with keel laying scheduled by June 2026. STM aims to launch the ships in 2027 and deliver them to the Portuguese Navy in 2028.

The USS John F. Kennedy left Newport News Shipbuilding, Virginia, for initial trials, the ship’s manufacturer Huntington Ingalls Industries, announced in a post on X.

“These trials will test important ship systems and components at sea for the first time,” the post read. “This huge milestone is the result of the selfless teamwork and unwavering commitment by our incredible shipbuilders, suppliers and ship’s force crew.”

Several ship spotting social media accounts on X posted videos of the massive vessel making its way out to open water.

The ship’s keel was laid on Aug. 22, 2015, in Newport News, Virginia, according to the non-profit Navy League.

Future USS John F. Kennedy kicks off topside catapult testing

The ship was launched on Oct. 29, 2019, christened on Dec. 7, 2019, and is the second vessel named after President John F. Kennedy.

The first was decommissioned in 2007 after 50 years of service.

The Ford-class Kennedy, meanwhile, has faced setbacks along the way.

The aircraft carrier was expected to be delivered in July 2025, but its arrival was pushed back until March 2027. Before that, the carrier had already experienced a year-long delay.

The most recent postponement was due “to support completion of Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) certification and continued Advanced Weapons Elevator (AWE) work,” according to the Navy’s FY2026 budget documents.

The new carrier is 1,092 feet long and weighs 100,000 tons. A December 2025 CRS report indicated that the Kennedy’s overall procurement cost was $13.2 billion.

The new facility will provide the Navy with the ability to manufacture, test and assemble components used in electric power and propulsion for submarines and other vessels. It will also support the design and testing of naval steam turbine systems.

The facility will also produce systems for the Columbia-class submarine program, which has been designated as the Navy’s top priority program, per a December 2025 Congressional Research Service report.

It was estimated last June that the Columbia-class vessel would be delivered two years late and is now facing a delay of 17 months, which could potentially impact the development of Virginia-class submarines due to a spillover of heightened manufacturing demands, according to the report.

The report notes that “the emergence of an estimated 17-month delivery delay in spite of these efforts is a reflection of the depth of the challenges the Navy and industry currently face in executing Navy shipbuilding programs,” and adds that the Navy’s aging Ohio-class submarines will likely not be replaced on schedule.

Although it demonstrated devastating stealth and firepower during Operation Midnight Hammer in Iran, the Ohio is due for replacement, with the first vessel of its class reaching the end of its lifecycle by next year.

The opening of the new facility comes at a time when spurring the delivery of the first vessel of the Columbia class is urgently needed.

“The Department of War has been clear about the need to strengthen and expand the defense industrial base, and this investment answers that call,” John Baylouny, president and CEO of Leonardo DRS, said in a release.

“By increasing capacity and modernizing our manufacturing infrastructure, we are ensuring the U.S. military has reliable access to the critical capabilities it needs, when and where they are needed.”

The most prominent development involved Turkish shipbuilding consortium TAIS and Barzan Holdings, which signed a $1 billion agreement covering the procurement of two Istif-class frigates.

The agreement was signed by Barzan Holdings on behalf of an international client, which was identified as the Indonesian Navy.

A separate agreement related to the same program had previously been signed between TAIS Shipyards and Indonesia’s Ministry of Defense during the IDEF defense exhibition in Istanbul in July 2025.

Unmanned systems cooperation also featured prominently at the naval show.

STM signed a memorandum of understanding with Barzan Holdings covering joint production and co-development of unmanned aerial systems, with options to extend cooperation to unmanned naval platforms.

Under the pact, STM aims to support the local production and integration of its tactical drones in Qatar, while providing engineering, systems development and technology integration support.

In a statement, Turkey’s Defense Industries Presidency said five cooperation agreements were signed at DIMDEX between Barzan Holdings and ASELSAN, ASFAT, MKE, STM and TAIS, covering ammunition production, systems engineering, naval platforms and technology sharing.

Taken together, the deals underline how Ankara and Doha are moving beyond buyer–seller relations toward joint ventures, localized production and third-market projects and positioning Turkey as a long-term industrial partner in Qatar’s defense modernization plans.

The procurement, which is to be carried out as a government-to-government deal with the United States, is estimated to be worth around $205 million, according to the country’s outgoing Defense Minister Atanas Zaprianov.

Following the Cabinet’s decision, the acquisition of anti-ship missiles developed by Norway’s Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace will now be submitted for clearance by the National Assembly, Bulgaria’s unicameral parliament. Zaprianov said that payments for the missiles are expected to be concentrated in the years 2029 to 2030, local news outlet Novinite - Sofia News Agency reported.

The caretaker government which approved the program is fulfilling its responsibilities until a new Cabinet is formed following a snap election anticipated for this spring. At the same time, given Bulgaria’s broad political consensus on the planned procurement, the parliament vote is expected to be a formality.

Last July, the U.S. State Department approved the foreign military sale of the Naval Strike Missile system and related gear for an estimated cost of $620 million. The authorized package includes missiles in several variants, mobile fire control centers with associated communications equipment, launch and transport vehicles, Link-16 multifunctional information distribution systems – joint tactical radio systems (MIDS-JTRS), as well as related training and spare parts assistance.

Amid Russia’s increasingly belligerent activities in the Black Sea, Bulgaria is set to join its neighbor Romania which has also purchased Naval Strike Missiles for its armed forces. The weapon is a sea-skimming, over-the-horizon missile enabled with a range that exceeds 185 kilometers (115 miles), according to data from Kongsberg.

A day after Trump’s Dec. 22 announcement at Mar-a-Lago that he had ordered the construction of a “Trump class” of possibly 20 to 25 battleships, China’s Global Times, a state media outlet, carried an interview with naval researcher Zhang Junshe stating that the type of warship envisioned by Trump would be a ripe target for China’s anti-ship weapons, including the so-called “carrier killer” DF-21D ballistic missile.

“The large size of a battleship also makes it more vulnerable and potentially an easier target, particularly when it is densely loaded with munitions,” according to Zhang, a researcher at the People’s Liberation Army Naval Military Academic Research Institute.

In the wake of the announcement, some analysts suggested the battleship proposal may ultimately not be realistic and instead a move by Trump to jolt awake the U.S. shipbuilding industry, which lags far behind China.

“We must wait and see if it can succeed,” Zhang told the Global Times, a tabloid published under the guidance of “People’s Daily,” the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party.

Trump’s battleship plan also appeared to draw a response from Russia. Two days after the Dec. 22 announcement, Nikolai Patrushev, an aide to President Vladimr Putin and head of Russia’s Naval Board, said in a speech that Russia had begun working on a “next-generation” nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.

On Dec. 30, in the wake of the unveiling of the battleship concept, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service released a report estimating that the new class of ships would cost as much as $15 billion for the first to put to sea — already named the USS Defiant — with each additional ship costing about $10 billion.

In a statement shortly after Trump put forward the plan, Bath Iron Works President Charles F. Krugh said his shipyard “stands ready to fully support the Navy in the design and construction of this important new shipbuilding program.”

Chris Kastner, Huntington Ingalls president and CEO, also issued a statement, saying, “We are proud to have built the Navy’s most technologically advanced surface combatants and our shipbuilders are committed to continuing that work in lock step with the Navy to expand their Fleet.”

The biggest fan of the battleship proposal, meanwhile, might be the service’s Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle, who said Wednesday at the Surface Navy Association Symposium that he views the battleship as the centerpiece in the formation of a “Golden Fleet” which “will anchor maritime fires and sea control in the most contested environments, massing durable combat power and absorbing punishment an adversary cannot match.”

Caudle also said the Navy has a lot of catching up to do in keeping pace with China, but that will depend on the ability of the shipyards to speed up production.

“It is not happening at the pace any of us are satisfied with,” Caudle said. “I am pressing hard with [Navy Secretary John Phelan] to accelerate deliveries in 2026 and beyond. I want more hulls in the water, and I want them there faster.”

Caudle noted that the Navy’s “Battle Force stands at roughly 290 ships, with about 100 deployed worldwide on any given day.”

That number stands in contrast to projections contained in the Pentagon’s recently released Annual Report to Congress on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China, which estimated the number of surface warships and submarines in service to Beijing to be at 370.

At the symposium Wednesday, Caudle gave a grim forecast, considering that near-peer fleet, on what the next fight at sea might look like.

“Let me be absolutely clear about that fight,” he said. “It will be faster, more distributed, more lethal and far less forgiving than anything we have faced in our lifetimes.

“There will be no rear area. There will be no sanctuary. There will be no ‘time to figure it out later.’ The opening minutes of the next fight will be decisive, and our obligation is to be ready on day one.”

Naval officials are hoping the development of the new class will help turn the future tide in America’s favor.

At the Dec. 22 announcement, Trump lauded the new battleships as being “the fastest, the biggest and by far, 100 times more powerful.”

He also claimed the ships would be armed with high-powered laser technology, nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons — all technologies in various stages of development. The president went on to mention the inclusion of an electromagnetic railgun, which the service said it had ditched in 2021.

Despite the president’s “biggest” claims, the tentative length of the BBG (X) — at 840 to 880 feet, with a beam of 105 to 115 feet — would be close to the measurements of the World War II-era Iowa class battleships. The battleship Missouri, meanwhile, had a displacement when fully loaded of about 58,000 tons, while the Trump class would come in at 35,000 tons-plus.

Considered too costly to maintain and too vulnerable to attack, the four Iowa class battleships — Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and New Jersey — were retired in the 1990s. Those same factors, analysts say, cast doubt over the future of the Trump class iteration.

Beyond the weapons and displacement of the new class, some have noted the artist renderings of the BBG(X) bears a resemblance to the “arsenal ship” of the 1990s, one that was intended to be a floating platform for up to 500 Tomahawk cruise missiles and other armaments.

Congress defunded the arsenal ship program in 1997, citing costs and questions about the survivability of the ships in combat.

Critics of the proposed new battleships said the same concerns that unraveled the arsenal ship will eventually scrap the Trump class program.

In a Dec. 23 commentary, Mark Cancian, a senior defense and security adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote that “this ship will never sail.”

“It will take years to design, cost $9 billion each to build and contravene the Navy’s new concept of operations, which envisions distributed firepower,” said Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and Vietnam veteran. “A future administration will cancel the program before the first ship hits the water.”

A different take came from retired Adm. James Foggo, a submariner and dean of the Center for Maritime Strategy think tank, who said in a Jan. 6 phone interview with Military Times that “anytime the [president] shows interest in your service is a good thing. It’s good that [Trump] is behind a program to build more ships.”

“So, the good news is the president is behind the initiatives to get shipbuilding going again,” said Foggo, a former commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa. “Certainly it’s a high risk because the Chinese have these very capable weapons systems. There’s a risk to anything that that floats on the sea. It’s how you deploy those systems in distributed maritime operations — don’t concentrate in one area. If the balloon goes up, the dumbest thing you could do is concentrate your forces.”

Complicating the pursuit of the new class is the current state of U.S. shipbuilding, which Phelan, in a Jan. 7 interview with Bret Baier of Fox News, called a “mess” and consistently “behind schedule and over budget.”

But the battleship program could serve as a catalyst in jump starting a new era of efficient and speedy construction in the yards, he added.

Phelan also expressed confidence that a new administration bent on erasing all things Trump would have a hard time in justifying the cancellation of the program.

“I think they’re going to have to explain why they canceled something that the Navy views as a requirement to protect us, enhance sea lanes and maintain and enhance America’s maritime dominance.”

In its report on the battleship program, the Congressional Research Service listed several “Issues for Congress” to decide on prior to approving the first two BBG(X) ships in the authorization and appropriations process.

Among them, the CRS report requested that Congress explore what analysis went into the procurement, whether the development would be the most cost-effective course of action and what the acquisition process looked like prior to the program’s initiation.

The report also suggested investigating whether new technologies, such as “an electromagnetic railgun and higher-power lasers,” would be ready by the 2030s as options to be incorporated.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle, speaking at the 38th Annual Surface Navy Association National Symposium in Arlington, Virginia, on Wednesday, explained that he understood the initial reticence to accept the inclusion of battleships as part of the Navy’s new Golden Fleet.

“We just have biases, cognitive biases, in our brain,” Caudle said. “And what comes to our brain is a thing that goes, like, ‘Why is the Navy building that?’ Well, everything’s an evolution.”

The battleships, which he labeled as “badass,” would afford the service multiple critical capabilities: massive payload volume, speed, the ability to get anywhere in the world, the ability to command and control operations and the ability to fulfill multiple missions.

President Donald Trump announced the Navy’s new Golden Fleet during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last month.

The fleet will include two Trump-class battleships, which Trump said would be the fastest and biggest battleships in the world and 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built.

Caudle said he fielded many questions about unmanned technology but that autonomous technology didn’t always present the best capabilities for deterrence, especially when you had a battleship with a significant ability to attack waiting in the wing.

“If I want to shoot 100 things from 100 things, or I want to shoot 100 things from one thing, which is harder?” Caudle asked rhetorically.

Navy must take risks, act like the US is at war, says Phelan

Enabling a general purpose force like the battleship, he said, was paramount for the success of the Navy’s future missions.

The battleship, however, won’t be nuclear powered, even though Caudle admitted it seemed logical for it be.

The Navy wanted to get the battleship into the water as fast as possible, and as a result, omitting nuclear power would speed up its production.

Rear Adm. Derek Trinque, the Navy’s surface warfare division director, was caught off-guard by Trump’s announcement of two new warships as part of the Golden Fleet.

“I did not expect to be told to build a battleship when I got this job,” Trinque said Tuesday at the symposium.

But he said he was excited at the opportunity to tackle it headfirst because it allowed the Navy the opportunity to accelerate its DDG(X), or Next-Generation Destroyer, program, which seeks to build the next class of surface combatants and replace older Arleigh Burke-class vessels, which joined the fleet in 1993.

Over the years, the Navy has had to perform surgery on the destroyers to add capabilities, Trinque said, noting that the service is working to “get better at adding capability without cutting them open.”

But while the Navy continues to master that process, it still needs something “newer and bigger” with more power and more weapons, Trinque said.

The Trump-class battleship addresses that necessity and provides an overwhelming amount of offensive strike capability and more overall capacity than any other service ship that the Navy possesses, he said.

Lunday takes the service’s helm at a time of great transformation: The Coast Guard has embarked on a modernization plan that aims to grow the force by 15,000 and expand its capabilities through acquisitions and technology, while it also is actively engaged in significant interdiction and national security operations.

In a ceremony at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, Lunday said the service is in “greater demand than ever before,” and he promised it would become a more “agile, capable and responsive fighting force.”

“Like every Coast Guard crew on a mission, our service must do three things: ready, fight and navigate. And we must do them in that order,” Lunday said.

Under Lunday’s tenure as acting commandant, the Coast Guard launched Force Design 2028, an initiative that calls for restructuring the service’s headquarters, purchasing new aircraft, ships, drones and technology to support operations, improving infrastructure and increasing end-strength.

The Coast Guard received nearly $25 billion in resources in July from the Trump administration’s reconciliation bill — funding designed to fix the service’s crumbling infrastructure and invest in new technology and assets.

A progress update of Force Design 2028 released Thursday said the Coast Guard already has allocated $7.7 billion of the funds and plans to complete the process by next year.

Speaking at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium in Arlington, Virginia, on Wednesday, Sean Plankey, a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, said the rapid pace was necessary to ensure that the service becomes the Coast Guard “that America needs.”

“That money is taxpayer dollars, and those a taxpayer expects us to use that money to invest it for the American public,” Plankey said. “If we’re just sitting on the account saying, ‘We’re waiting on requirements, we’re figuring things out,’ it’s not going to change the service.”

Since the announcement of Force Design 2028, the service has reorganized 68% of its headquarters staff, creating a chief of staff and two deputy commandant positions, eliminated 14 flag officer positions and added program executive offices to manage acquisitions.

The Coast Guard has purchased two long-range command-and-control aircraft and invested in counter-unmanned aerial systems. It has also made investments in acquiring a new fleet of Arctic security cutters, ten additional fast response cutters, additional offshore patrol cutters and new polar icebreakers and waterways commerce cutters.

At the heart of this “bold course,” Lunday said, are Coast Guard men and women, which he called “our greatest treasure.”

“We will lead and inspire our crews to get the mission done while taking the very best care of them,” Lunday said.

Lunday was named acting commandant Jan. 21, 2025, when his predecessor, Adm. Linda Fagan, was fired from the job after serving in the position for nearly three years. Lunday, a 1987 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, was appointment vice commandant in June 2024 and previously served as commander of Atlantic Area.

Previous assignments include commander of the 14th Coast Guard District, now known as Coast Guard Oceania District, and U.S. Coast Guard Cyber Command. He holds a Master of Science in national security strategy from the National War College and a law degree from George Washington University Law School.

During his swearing-in ceremony, Noem called Lunday a “special kind of leader” for “unprecedented times.”

“Over the past year, Adm. Lunday has proven that his leadership and dedication to the country is unprecedented. He has proven that he is dedicated to the success of the Coast Guard and he has proven it over and over. In fact, 2025 turned out to be one of the most significant and impactful in the Coast Guard’s history,” Noem said.

Lunday was slated to deliver a keynote address Wednesday at the Surface Navy Association meeting but he was called away for operational demands, organizers said.

A social media post Thursday by Noem gave some insight into Lunday’s absence: She announced that the Coast Guard had been involved in the seizure of a sixth sanctioned oil tanker the administration said has ties to Venezuela.

According to The Associated Press, a Coast Guard tactical team boarded the motor tanker Veronica with Marines and Navy sailors from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford in the Caribbean Sea.

The collaboration comes in response to a call by global navies for more armed naval drones, according to Saildrone.

The 20-meter Saildrone Surveyor vessel will boast the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) launcher manufactured by the U.S. defense giant.

“We expect this work to attract interest from customers who already depend upon Saildrone and are now thinking about layered maritime defense – for some navies, awareness alone is no longer sufficient, and they’re asking how unmanned systems can also contribute to deterrence and if necessary a response,” ret. Vice-Adm. John Mustin, Saildrone’s president, told Defense News.

Larger Saildrone USVs are also under consideration to carry Lockheed Martin weaponry, such as the Mk 70 Vertical Launching System, a containerized missile launcher, per a company press release.

The new partnership will entail enhanced naval capabilities, including the use of artificial intelligence, which is part of Lockheed Martin’s $50 million investment in Saildrone.

According to Mustin, while the company strives to integrate greater autonomy across its USVs to increase sensing and data processing abilities, it is not pursuing fully autonomous weapons. “Any strike capability would have a human firmly in the loop,” he added.

Many global navies have envisioned a manned-unmanned hybrid fleet for their future requirements, including the United States. Former U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday said the service’s ambition is to build up to 500 vessels, including 350 crewed ships and 150 large uncrewed surface vessels.

Last year’s reconciliation bill known as the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act,’ passed by Congress, included investments of over $3 billion for the procurement of surface vessels: $1.5 billion for the expansion of small USV production and $2.1 for the development and procurement of medium ones.

A report from the U.S.-based Center for Maritime Strategy published in September noted that lawmakers were reluctant to approve the planned funding until the Navy was able to produce a concept of operations for their use.

Saildrone has already planned proof-of-concept integrations and a live-fire demonstration to take place next summer.

Arming naval drones was not a widely implemented practice a few years ago, primarily due to technological and political hurdles, which limited their use largely to surveillance missions.

The Ukraine war has changed this, as the country’s naval forces demonstrated their ability to attack much larger targets using cheaper weaponized USVs.

However, the Saildrone executive warned that the success may not replicate across different conflict zones.

“What the Ukrainians have shown is their incredible ability to inflict a cost curve on their adversaries, striking capital assets with significantly less expensive means – but different theaters around the world present different challenges over much larger distances and threats,” Mustin said.

Over the last year, Saildrone platforms have totaled over 10,000 cumulative days on the water, covering more than 380,000 nautical miles and detecting 2,376,583 vessels, according to the company.

Navy Secretary John Phelan delivered remarks at the 38th Annual Surface Navy Association National Symposium in Arlington, Virginia, and extolled the virtues of “radical transparency,” an end to “stupid” practices, rolling the dice on calculated risks and maintaining a posture that is ready for war at any time to better the service’s current and future fleets.

“That results in accountability and moving from a compliance-based organization to a performance-based organization,” Phelan said.

The Navy secretary emphasized the importance of sculpting the service into an organization that did not penalize individuals for raising their hand and pointing out problems, instead welcoming a culture that prioritizes accountability.

He said he noticed a desire within the Navy to change. Internal discussions within the service, according to Phelan, have noted that there is a problem with taking accountability, both with regard to the Navy and with Navy customers.

But the Navy secretary is just as concerned with owning mistakes as taking swings that might lead to them.

Phelan preached the importance of risk-taking by increasing production and ramping up shipbuilding efforts with a decreased fear of failure.

Speaking about his time before the Navy as a CEO and businessman responsible for founding several investment companies, Phelan said it became increasingly difficult to embrace risk as his companies grew larger and more successful.

Despite that hesitancy though, Phelan said he still tried to prioritize taking calculated, smart risks. Unconventional thinking and experimentation, for Phelan, were the foundations of success.

The same applies to the Navy, he said.

According to Phelan, there is currently the notion that something has to be perfect — right out of the gate — once it is ready for testing.

This doesn’t have to be the case, he said.

Shipbuilding, drones, and the shape of US naval industrial base

Phelan hopes to move the Navy away from a zero-defect mentality and increase speed.

An uptick in output can lead to mistakes and failures, but from those failures, lessons can be learned, he reiterated.

During his visits to shipyards, Phelan said he’d also noticed “stupid” practices that resulted from underinvestment and should be fixed to improve conditions for workers: A bathroom a mile away from welders; a supply bin two miles away from welders and pipefitters; bad parking that caused hour-long delays for workers getting into the office — these were logistic issues that Phelan said needed solving.

The Navy secretary further emphasized the need to outpace near-peer adversaries like the People’s Republic of China — which he said by 2030 was projected to possess nearly half of the overall global industrial capacity — in order to maintain maritime dominance abroad and specifically in the Indo-Pacific.

In 2022, China had approximately 1,800 ships under construction, whereas the U.S. had five, Phelan pointed out. China also had roughly 100 million people working in manufacturing, whereas the U.S. had fewer than 13 million, according to the Navy secretary.

Phelan said he visited a defense company that made missiles, whose name he declined to mention, on a Thursday at 11:00 a.m. and was shocked to find only 18 people working that day in a 250,000 square foot facility.

The lack of boots on the ground drove him to ask a question he said he’s asked many times during his time as Navy secretary:

“What would we do if we were at war?”

The U.S. needs to prepare so that it can fight international conflicts whenever it is called upon to do so, Phelan said.

“We should behave like we’re playing Miami or Indiana [football] every weekend,” he said.

That type of vigilance is hard to maintain, but if warfighters are doing it, so should everyone else, he said.

Conflicts can break out at any time, said Phelan.

“‘I wish’ is a really bad thing when it comes to warfare,” he concluded.

The procurement, approved by the parliamentary budget committee on Dec. 17 and announced on Monday, includes four complete systems − each comprising two aircraft − along with four “certifiable” ground control stations that will allow the aircraft to operate alongside civilian traffic. First deliveries are expected in 2028, with the German Navy’s Marineflieger planning to operate the platforms from Naval Air Wing 3 Graf Zeppelin in Nordholz.

The SeaGuardians will focus on maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare across the Baltic Sea and North Atlantic, missions that have gained urgency amid heightened concerns over Russian underwater activity and critical infrastructure security in European waters.

The drones will complement Germany’s fleet of eight P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, the first of which arrived in Germany in November 2025. Together, they mark a notable shift in German focus toward maritime surveillance and counter-submarine warfare capabilities in recent years.

New German sub-hunting plane to operate out of Norway, Iceland

General Atomics markets the MQ-9B SeaGuardian as being capable of over 30 hours of endurance with a mission radius of 1,200 nautical miles, or over 2,000 kilometers. The platform features pole-to-pole satellite control, de-icing capability for cold-weather operations, and an integrated Detect and Avoid System designed to enable operations in unsegregated civilian airspace.

The aircraft can be equipped with maritime surveillance radars and configured with anti-submarine warfare mission kits capable of deploying up to 40 ‘A’-size or 80 ‘G’-size sonobuoys. Germany has indicated the systems will initially focus on reconnaissance missions.

“The proliferation of MQ-9B in Europe delivers commonality between NATO countries and for Germany, it will provide opportunities for interoperability with their fleet of P-8As,” said Linden Blue, CEO of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.

Interoperability with allies was an important factor in the purchase decision, the German military said, adding that they would benefit from learning from British and Belgian experience with the aircraft type.

Poland will soon join the club, too, after signing a $310 million contract for MQ-9B SkyGuardian systems in December 2024.

Berlin’s new focus on maritime surveillance comes at a time of heightened presence of Russian naval assets, both military and ostensibly civilian, in the waters of the North and Baltic Seas near Germany. In July of last year, the government announced a new mission to put pressure on the Russian shadow fleet of tankers used to circumvent EU sanctions and continue financing the war in Ukraine.

“The more complete the picture, the sooner we can cooperate with our partner countries in the Baltic Sea region to take appropriate measures,” said German Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder at the time.