Pecohub Since U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to power last November, expectations have grown that the South Korean shipbuilding industry would secure contracts to build U.S. Navy vessels under the MASGA (Make American Shipbuilding Great Again) initiative.
However, the legal reality in Washington remains harsh. The final version of the 2026 fiscal year National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which the U.S. Congress agreed upon on the 7th, confirmed that the ban on overseas construction of U.S. military ships remains firmly in place.
The NDAA is the top-tier legislation in the defense sector, setting the annual U.S. defense budget and core security policies.
According to the 3,086-page text of the “2026 NDAA,” the U.S. Congress has capped the number of military ships that can be built overseas for the next fiscal year at “no more than two.” Even these two ships are not the main combat vessels (such as destroyers) that South Korea had hoped for, but non-combat support ships for missile defense testing.
Section 1656 of the NDAA, which outlines the design and construction of missile measurement safety ships, states that the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) can contract for the construction of these ships “not exceeding two vessels,” despite provisions in Section 8679 of Title 10 of the U.S. Code. Section 8679, also known as the Burns-Tollefson Act, stipulates that “the hulls and major components of U.S.
Navy ships cannot be built in foreign shipyards.” The inclusion of the phrase “despite Section 8679” effectively reaffirms Congress’s stance that the overseas shipbuilding ban remains a constant governing the entire U.S. defense budget in 2026.
Even this exception is strictly limited to “no more than two ships.” Rather than a full market opening, Congress has granted a narrow exception only for urgent quantities where domestic construction capacity is insufficient.
According to materials from the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, the two exempted ships are not Aegis destroyers or submarines—areas where South Korean shipyards have competitive strength—but missile measurement safety ships operated by the MDA for tracking trajectories and ensuring safety during missile interception tests.
