On July 4, ahead of the deadline, US President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, marking the controversial bill’s official passage into law. What has not been widely discussed is that the bill includes $5 billion in special funding for naval shipbuilding.
According to U.S. maritime media, the funding focuses on the “urgent” needs of the U.S. Navy. Currently, the U.S. Navy’s new shipbuilding projects are behind schedule, and ship maintenance activities are also facing challenges, among which labor and supply chain issues are the main bottlenecks.
Key funding items in the bill include:
- $250 million to accelerate the training of the defense manufacturing workforce;
- $750 million to develop suppliers for the naval shipbuilding supply chain, $250 million for advanced manufacturing processes for the naval supply chain;
- $500 million for additive manufacturing (a technology that has not yet been popularized in the civilian shipbuilding industry);
- $400 million for the construction of a naval shipbuilding collaborative park;
- and $500 million for the application of artificial intelligence in naval shipbuilding (an emerging key area).
Some of the provisions may benefit the commercial shipbuilding sector, including:
- $500 million for advanced manufacturing in shipbuilding industrial bases;
- $500 million for advanced shipbuilding technology;
- $500 million for shipbuilding industry workforce training.
It is worth mentioning that the construction plan of the follow-up ship of the US Navy’s “Constellation-class” frigate did not appear in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” this time. Instead, the US Congress approved two controversial new projects: spending $1.8 billion on the Marine Corps’ medium landing ship and $2.1 billion on the research and development and procurement of medium unmanned surface vessels (MUSV).