The US Navy is asking Congress for $65.8 billion to buy ships in fiscal year 2027, the largest shipbuilding request in decades. A recent Business Insider video looked at why American warships have become so expensive to build.
The request, unveiled with the Pentagon’s FY2027 budget in April, includes $60.2 billion in the base budget and $5.6 billion through budget reconciliation, USNI News reported. Officials have compared the push to the Reagan-era 600-ship Navy and the nuclear submarine build-up of the 1960s. Adjusted for inflation, it is the second-largest shipbuilding request since 1955, behind only 1962, according to Congressional Budget Office data cited by USNI News.
What the money would buy
The plan covers 34 naval ships, 18 of them battle-force ships and 16 support vessels:
- Two Virginia-class attack submarines and one Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine
- One Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and one new FF(X) frigate
- One San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock and one America-class amphibious assault ship
- Six Medium Landing Ships (Megan McClung class)
- Two AS(X) submarine tenders and two John Lewis-class fleet oilers
- A hospital ship, an ocean surveillance ship, a special mission ship, strategic sealift and bulk fuel vessels, four ship-to-shore connectors and five fire boats
New frigate, new battleship
The budget follows Navy Secretary John Phelan’s cancellation of the Constellation-class frigate, which he blamed on workforce problems at the Wisconsin shipyard building it and continuing design changes. The Navy will instead pursue a frigate based on the Coast Guard’s Legend-class National Security Cutter built by HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding. The administration’s “Golden Fleet” initiative also centres on a new Trump-class battleship.
The request still has to pass Congress through the annual defence authorisation and appropriations bills.
Sources: USNI News (3 April 2026), Business Insider. Photo: file image of USS San Antonio (LPD 17), US Navy / public domain.
