ARLINGTON, VA — Shipbuilder HII is concentrating on improving its shipbuilding capacity and efficiency to meet the demands of the military and the Trump Administration, efforts that now are expected to include building a new class of battleships.
Chris Kastner, president and CEO of HII, sat down with reporters in the company’s Arlington, Virginia office ahead of next week’s Surface Navy Association meeting and said the company is in tune with the administration and is focused on increasing its capacity and bolstering its workforce to speed ship production.
“It’s a good and challenging time to be in shipbuilding,” Kastner said.
Some of those challenges have arisen very recently. Just before Christmas, Trump announced a new class of battleship as part of the “Golden Fleet” concept to revitalize American shipbuilding, which would mark the first battleship construction since World War II.
This week, Trump said he wants defense spending to climb to $1.5 trillion, a 50% increase over the current budget, including spending from last year’s budget reconciliation bill. He also said defense companies should focus on performance instead of conducting stock buybacks or paying large salaries to executives.
Kastner said while much is yet unknown about the battleship — “we learned of the battleship announcement when you did” — he expects more information in the next month or two and said it won’t interfere with plans for a Navy package buy of two aircraft carriers as “it’s clear the Navy wants both, they’re both part of the Golden Fleet.”
The Navy has so far projected the battleship will be up to 800 feet long, have a crew of up to 850 and consist of 20 to 25 ships, each equipped with vertical launch missile cells, two Mk45 five-inch guns, one 32-megajoule railguns, Spy-6 radars and more.
Kastner said the speed of design and construction depends on whether it’s a clean-sheet system or one based on a parent ship, such as Arleigh Burke-class DDG-51 destroyers or the follow-on DDG(X) concept.
“If it’s fundamentally based on a derivative of a DDG expanded and they can use the DDG(X) concept studies as a baseline, you can accelerate things,” he said. “It’s all going to be based on the requirements, and how many of those requirements are consistent with a previous ship’s requirements, and whether you can use similar design parameters.”
Navy shipbuilding plans also include a yet-undefined new type of aircraft carrier as well as a new frigate based on HII’s Legend-class national security cutter, which Secretary of the Navy John Phelan described as “a proven, American-built ship that has been protecting U.S. interest at home and abroad … our goal is clear — launch the first hull in the water in 2028.”
Kastner said the carrier design is likely a “potential redesign of the Ford class” and said the goal date of 2028 for the new frigate is achievable because it’s based on the existing design. The Navy’s previous frigate program, based on an Italian ship design, was truncated to just two vessels after the program experienced schedule delays, cost overruns and design changes.
I have high confidence we can get that in the water in 2028,” he said. “When I say in the water, that means launched by 2028.” As for performing to meet White House and Department of Defense standards, Kastner said, “the theme is invest more, invest more for capacity and capability and technology, and if you do that and execute, you have opportunity for growth.”
