Aug 18, 2026 · 8 min · 9 segments
In this week's episode of The Break Out, Breaking Defense Deputy Editor Lee Ferran and Air Warfare Reporter Michael Marrow discuss a new, wide-ranging national security memo from President Donald…
Lee FerranHostMichael MorrowGuest
Daniel WoolfolkSo I think the biggest news is the plan to get, uh, possibly some US ships built in foreign shipyards.
Right, that's the, Trump has directed, uh, the Defense Department to look at potentially getting US Navy ships built by foreign shipyards in an expansion of what is, they're calling the Finland Model.
And the idea is that a foreign shipyard would be allowed to build at least two ships of certain classes-
Right, and that would either be their own actual shipyard or they take a, a direct, you know, equity stake in an existing shipyard and then build those ships there.
So you can imagine there's already a bit of controversy about this, especially from American, uh, ship workers who-
... obviously they are saying that no, American ships need to be built by American companies on American shipyards.
Uh, foreign shipyards have been viewed as a way to really, uh, break the bottleneck on, uh, shipbuilding here in the United States, but, like you said, you run into problems of should US dollars be flowing overseas when really, you know, the argument is that capacity should be built here within this country.
Right, and the administration would say this gives, uh, ships to the Navy faster and it also, uh, makes a big promise that there will be more work for American workers in the future from those foreign shipyards.
So I think the biggest news is the plan to get, uh, possibly some US ships built in foreign shipyards.
Right, that's the, Trump has directed, uh, the Defense Department to look at potentially getting US Navy ships built by foreign shipyards in an expansion of what is, they're calling the Finland Model.
And the idea is that a foreign shipyard would be allowed to build at least two ships of certain classes-
Right, and that would either be their own actual shipyard or they take a, a direct, you know, equity stake in an existing shipyard and then build those ships there.
So you can imagine there's already a bit of controversy about this, especially from American, uh, ship workers who-
... obviously they are saying that no, American ships need to be built by American companies on American shipyards.
Uh, foreign shipyards have been viewed as a way to really, uh, break the bottleneck on, uh, shipbuilding here in the United States, but, like you said, you run into problems of should US dollars be flowing overseas when really, you know, the argument is that capacity should be built here within this country.
Right, and the administration would say this gives, uh, ships to the Navy faster and it also, uh, makes a big promise that there will be more work for American workers in the future from those foreign shipyards.
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