US Navy given Congress approval to repair surface vessels at overseas shipyards

With overseas deployment for the US Navy’s surface fleet growing and growing in an increasingly unstable world in the Middle East and Far East, it is increasingly seeking permission to repair vessels at overseas shipyards, as opposed to bringing vessels back to US shipyards, which are currently hard pressed to repair their present workloads on time.

After receiving approval from Congress, the USN will undertake repair and maintenance on at least six, as yet unnamed vessels, at overseas shipyards during 2025.

In a particular reference to China, the US’ Secretary of the Navy (SecNav), Carlos Del Toro, said that if the country was to go to war, it will know which shipyards to send its vessels to go for repairs when needed.

For a number of years, the USN and the Military Sealift Command have repaired vessels at shipyards in Croatia, Italy and Malta in Europe; Bahrain, Dubai and Oman in the Middle East, and is now looking to expand its repair operations at shipyards in India, Japan and South Korea. The USN already has Master Ship Repair Agreements with a number of yards in India and Japan.

In Japan, the USN is looking at using Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and increase its workload at Sumitomo Heavy Industries, while it is now considering also using yards in the Ulsan region of South Korea.

In India, the USN recently repaired two MSC-operated vessels at Larsen & Toubro’s Kattapulli major repair facility near Chennai – the Lewis & Clark dry cargo ship sisters USNS Charles Drew (T-AKE-10) and USNS Matthew Perry (T-AKE-9).

The USN has made using foreign shipyards for repair and maintenance its top priority since US-based shipyards cannot accommodate all of its requirements as of today.