US Navy shipbuilding is ‘a mess.’ South Korean companies think they can help fix it | CNN

The shipyards – run by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, and Hanwha Ocean in Geoje – are already making some of the world’s top-rated warships for the South Korean navy. On time. And within budget.

Officials at both facilities are emphatic that they are ready to share the technology and knowhow needed to construct guided-missile destroyers, frigates and submarines with a US Navy that faces a shipbuilding crisis as it tries to keep up with an ever-growing Chinese fleet.

Top officials have made the size of the problem clear.

“All of our programs are a mess,” US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan told a US House hearing in June.

“I think our best one is six months late and 57% over budget … That is the best one,” Phelan testified.

While Phelan’s comments may come as a shock to some, they’re no big secret.

US shipbuilding programs have been chronically behind schedule and over budget for years.

All the while, one of Washington’s closest Pacific allies is forging ahead.

During a CNN visit to the Hyundai and Hanwha shipyards last month, officials explained how South Korea has become a shipbuilding powerhouse that turns out vessels quickly and efficiently.

At the Hanwha yard, officials showed CNN brand-new buildings specially built to service an an order for four frigates from the South Korean navy. The massive building where the hulls will be put together took just 14 months to complete, one official said.

The 122-meter-long, 3,100-ton frigates that will be built there will be formidable, with vertical launch cells for air defense missiles and the ability to launch anti-ship missiles as well as anti-submarine torpedoes.

Each will take about three years to complete. That’s approximately as long as the delays plaguing the US’s Constellation-class frigate program, according to a Congressional Research Report, a prime example of the problems with US shipbuilding.

The delays are blamed on the Navy making too many alterations to an existing design used by the Italian and French navies, upon which the class was to be based.

<div data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/video-resource/instances/cmgu29yw300013b6ni6lbtfl8@published" data-component-name="video-resource" data-editable="settings" class="video-resource-elevate" data-fixed-ratio="16×9" data-canonical-url-path="/2025/10/17/world/video/south-korea-shipbuilding-us-hyundai-hanwha-digvid" data-auth-type="" data-parent-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/video-resource/instances/cmgt640ps00003b6n19crrvnu@published" data-video-id="meb04ed75e033e22ddd4db20e32edd8614dc77f4ae" data-media-id="meb04ed75e033e22ddd4db20e32edd8614dc77f4ae" data-bolt-id="bbe29f33-db5b-581c-8c94-609b91f4deae" data-live="" data-analytics-aggregate-events="true" data-custom-experience="" data-asset-type="hlsTs" data-content-type="mediasource-clip" data-medium-env="" data-autostart="disabled" data-show-ads="true" data-source="CNN" data-featured-video="true" data-headline="Can South Korean shipyards help 'Make American Shipbuilding Great Again'?" data-has-video-player="true" data-description="<p>CNN’s Brad Lendon and Mike Valerio visited two sprawling shipyards on the Korean Peninsula, where they found the means and the will to help the US keep up with China.</p>" data-duration="06:53" data-source-html='<span class="video-resource__source"> • Source:

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<div class=”byline__authors byline__authors–multiple”>Brad Lendon and <div class=”byline__author”><a class=”byline__image-link vossi-byline__link” href=https://www.cnn.com/profiles/mike-valerio><span><img height=”50″ width=”50″ class=”byline__image” src=”https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/1533550-0043-r-ps2560x1440.jpg?c=16×9&q=h_270,w_480,c_fill/c_thumb,g_face,w_50,h_50″ alt=”” onerror=”imageLoadError(this)”/></span></a><a class=”byline__link vossi-byline__link” href=https://www.cnn.com/profiles/mike-valerio><span class=”byline__name”>Mike Valerio</span></a></div></div>
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<div class=”timestamp__published”>PUBLISHED <time datetime=”2025-10-20T06:29:49.704Z”>Oct 20, 2025, 2:29 AM ET</time></div>
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