The US Navy is canceling the last four ships of its Constellation-class guided missile frigates in a “strategic shift, the service secretary announced Tuesday.
The frigate program has faced increasing scrutiny over its design issues and the shipbuilding schedule, but the Navy was determined to acquire 20 Constellation frigates, which were crucial to the service’s fleet-size goal.
Navy Secretary John Phelan announced the cancellation in a post on X on Tuesday, saying the last four ships ordered for the program would be terminated.
“From day one I made it clear: I won’t spend a dollar if it doesn’t strengthen readiness or our ability to win,” he wrote.
Work, he said, will continue on the two vessels currently under construction. In his remarks, Phelan said that “while work continues on the first two ships, those ships remain under review as we work through this strategic shift.”
The Constellation frigates were being built by Wisconsin-based Fincantieri Marinette Marine, which won the contract for the new ships in 2020. The $22 billion program for 20 vessels in total has been a topic of criticism from lawmakers, US military leaders, and President Donald Trump.
President Trump, seen here at FMM in 2020, has said revitalizing US shipbuilding is a top priority for his administration.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
A Government Accountability Office report pinned delays and cost overruns on the Navy decision to start building the first ship in the class before the design was finished, among other missteps. The Navy also tried to speed up construction by leaning on technologies already proven on other vessels, the watchdog noted in its report last year.
Shipbuilder Fincantieri Marinette Marine told Business Insider it believes “that the Navy will honor the agreed framework and channel work in sectors such as amphibious, icebreaking, and special missions into our system of shipyards, while they determine how we can support with new types of small surface combatants, both manned and unmanned, that they want to rapidly field.”
“The key is to maximize the commitment and capabilities our system of shipyards represents,” FMM said.
Phelan said that although the Navy was no longer pursuing the program, keeping shipbuilders, a “critical workforce,” employed and the yard ready for future projects was a major concern.
“The Navy needs ships, and we look forward to building them in every shipyard we can,” he said.
An FMM spokesperson told Business Insider its employees were priority amid the production shift, saying that it didn’t foresee layoffs at the moment based on the company’s current workload.
In April 2024, then-Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro attended the keel laying of the lead Constellation-class vessel.
US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd class Jared Mancuso
“Although we will likely not need as much subcontracted labor and some specialties that would have been needed on the additional frigates, we do not see massive cuts being required with our employees,” the spokesperson said.
Capt. Ron Flanders, the Navy public affairs officer for the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development, and acquisition, told Business Insider that the service “recognizes the potential impact on employment at Fincantieri. We greatly value the Wisconsin and Michigan shipbuilders currently working on the first two ships.”
The Navy is retiring more vessels than it’s building, temporarily driving a lowering of overall fleet numbers at a time when China, the Pentagon’s identified pacing challenge, continues churning out warships at breakneck pace.
The frigate program was key to the service’s vision of a 355-ship fleet. It’s unclear what’s next. In his post, the Navy secretary said a critical factor in canceling the Constellation was “the need to grow the fleet faster to meet tomorrow’s threats” and that the service’s new framework put new classes of ships on a faster shipbuilding timeline. It wasn’t immediately clear how that will play out.
Flanders told Business Insider that the Navy is currently completing its analysis of requirements for fleet size and will submit an updated 30-year shipbuilding plan with the fiscal year 2027 presidential budget request.
The Chief of Naval Operations is also updating the Battle Force Ship Assessment and Requirement in anticipation of the release of a new National Defense Strategy, he added.
