Surface Navy 2026: US Navy seeks paradigm shifts in shipbuilding

Leonardo DRS is recommending the USN develop a common shipbuilding architecture using an electric-drive propulsion system, such as the one shown here. (Leondardo DRS)

The United States needs to fundamentally change the way it builds ships to meet US Navy (USN) needs, according to Admiral Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations (CNO).

“We need some paradigm shifts,” Adm Caudle said on 14 January during a media roundtable discussion at the Surface Navy Association (SNA) National Symposium 2026.

To significantly increase capacity as required, US shipyards will have to change the way they do business, focusing more on modularity and seeking different partners, including those abroad, Adm Caudle noted.

Such changes will improve the supply chain, increase lead time, and raise the general ability to provide more capacity, Adm Caudle said.

While US shipbuilders have begun to step up their efforts to use more modularity, Adm Caudle called that progress the “tip of the iceberg”.

He said, “Foreign partners are all in for modularity. Traditionally, we have not built ships that way. The final workflow in [US] shipyards is not to modular effect yet. It's not optimised.”

Adm Caudle used the building of the new frigate-like small surface combatant recently identified by the USN, based on the US Coast Guard (USCG) National Security Cutter (NSC), as an example of how modularity might work.

“Let's say one of the [American] gulf yards is on [a] frigate – nothing would prevent other gulf shipyards from building some parts or [the] whole of a [frigate] module,” he said. “You can bring on other shipyards for additional capacity.”

Adm Caudle noted the existing example of Alabama-based Austal USA building Virginia-class submarine modules for General Dynamics.