By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-12 12:14:32 | Updated at 2025-01-12 15:13:59
3 hours ago
American president-elect Donald Trump’s complaints about a delayed US Navy frigate programme suggest he plans to increase cost efficiency in shipbuilding in response to growing competition with China, according to analysts.
In an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday, Trump criticised the US Navy’s efforts to procure a new class of warship, saying design changes and “tinkering” by “Biden administration admirals and generals” had raised the cost of acquiring the vessels.
While he did not name the exact programme, he appeared to be talking about the Constellation-class frigate programme.
In 2020, during Trump’s first term in the White House, the Pentagon awarded a contract to Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri to design and build the ships.
“I gave out a great contract for essentially destroyers. Beautiful, they were beautiful … And they were going and really doing a good job,” Trump said, according to an interview transcript on Hewitt’s website.
“But the generals or the admirals went in and they said, ‘Oh, why don’t we make it a little bit wider? Why don’t we do this? Why don’t we do that?’ … Unfortunately, they’re not smart, and they take something and they make it worse for a lot more money.”
Frigates are a type of warship that play a similar role to destroyers, but are generally smaller and carry lighter weapons. Both types are designed to manoeuvre quickly to escort and protect other vessels from air, land and underwater attacks.
