The US Navy has formally asked South Korea's three largest shipbuilders whether they could build its warships. Requests for information went out in June 2026 to HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean and Samsung Heavy Industries, covering eight destroyer-sized surface combatants and a class of medium fleet-replenishment oilers, according to reports from The Maritime Executive and Naval News published from July 8.
The inquiry is without modern precedent. A foreign-built combat ship would be the US Navy's first since 1922, when the British-built New Orleans class entered service, a gap of 104 years. It also lands in direct tension with Congress: in early June the House Armed Services Committee approved language for the FY2027 defense authorization bill that would bar foreign construction of combat vessels. In the same weeks the committee was writing that prohibition into the draft, the Navy was asking Korean yards whether they could do the work.
Two RFIs, three yards
The first request covers eight destroyer-sized combatants and went to HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean, the two yards that build the Republic of Korea Navy's roughly 8,500-ton Sejong the Great class, an Aegis destroyer closely comparable to the American Arleigh Burke. The second seeks information on medium fleet-replenishment fuel tankers; all three builders responded, with Samsung Heavy Industries answering only the tanker request. The yards submitted their capability packages in June, Korea JoongAng Daily reported.
The arithmetic behind the heresy
The Navy's own force-structure goal explains why the question is being asked at all. The service operates roughly 300 ships and is targeting 381 by 2054, a plan that implies about 364 new hulls, or some 12 ships a year, a rate far beyond what American yards currently deliver. Set against that arithmetic, the world's most productive destroyer builders begin to look less like a political liability and more like the only available supply.
The diplomatic groundwork preceded the paperwork. At the June 2026 G7 summit in France, President Donald Trump asked South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, "Can you quickly build 10 U.S. warships?", an exchange reported by The Maritime Executive and Korea JoongAng Daily. It sits inside the MASGA shipbuilding cooperation framework, under which Korea has committed $150 billion for shipbuilding within a broader $350 billion US investment package. The RFIs convert that summit-level conversation into a step inside the formal acquisition system.
The legal wall, and the hedge built around it
Standing between the RFIs and any contract is the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendment, which prohibits foreign construction of US Navy vessels and can be set aside only by congressional waiver. The House committee's June vote pushed the other way. That is precisely why the Korean groups have spent the past two years building American footholds. Hanwha bought Philly Shipyard in 2024 and has laid out a $5 billion investment program for the site, is pursuing a license for combat construction there and is partnering with Vard US Marine on the Navy's next-generation logistics ship. HD Hyundai has an agreement with Huntington Ingalls, and Samsung has paired with General Dynamics NASSCO. If a waiver never comes, Korean production methods can still reach the Navy through hulls assembled on American soil.
What to watch
The FY2027 NDAA conference is the decision point. If waiver language for Byrnes-Tollefson survives into the final bill, the destroyer RFI can mature into a solicitation; if the House prohibition prevails, the Korean role narrows to US-based joint ventures and auxiliary work. An RFI is information-gathering, not procurement, and no solicitation yet exists. The oiler track may also move first: the House language targets combat construction, and replenishment tankers are auxiliaries, a distinction that could let the less contested half of the inquiry advance while the destroyer question waits on Congress. Either way, the capability packages the three yards filed in June mean the Navy will, for the first time in a century, be weighing that judgment with real Korean shipyard data in hand.
