The U.S. Navy suffered a major blow on Tuesday to its struggling shipbuilding program when Secretary of the Navy John Fahy announced the cancellation of plans to acquire Constellation-class frigates, once touted as a key part of the U.S. strategy to keep pace with China’s rapidly growing navy. Fahy stated that the multi-billion dollar surface combatant program was not delivering sufficient value. “I will not spend a dime unless it enhances lethality or our ability to win,” the Secretary of the Navy said in a social media post. “To live up to that promise, we are remaking how we build and equip the Fleet—working with industry to deliver a combat advantage, starting with a strategic pivot away from the Constellation-class frigate program,” he said. The U.S. needs to grow its fleet faster “to counter the threats of tomorrow,” a senior U.S. Department of Defense official told reporters, according to USNI News. “This structure is designed to put the Navy on a path to more rapidly construct new classes of vessels and deliver the capabilities our warriors need, in greater numbers and faster,” the official said. Related Video still_22034019_27770.567_still.jpg Video Why the World’s Largest Shipyard is Part of the Plan to ‘Revive American Shipbuilding’ The service already contracted Fincantieri Marine Group for six of these warships, touted on the Navy’s website as its “next-generation small surface combatant.” At one point, 20 such ships were planned, at a cost of about $1.1 billion each. The Constellation class was intended to be a “maneuverable, multi-mission warship” capable of operating in the open ocean or littoral zones, “providing an enhanced warfighting forward presence that delivers naval advantage at sea,” according to a supporting Navy document. With a displacement of about 7,200 tons, the ships were seen as filling the gap between the 10,000-ton Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers—the backbone of the U.S. fleet—and the 3,500-ton Littoral Combat Ships (from another Navy shipbuilding program widely considered a failure). The Navy has not had a frigate in its active inventory since the USS Simpson was decommissioned in 2015. In the time since, Chinese shipyards have churned out warships at a frantic pace, and the country surpassed the U.S. in fleet size several years ago. China’s Growing Numbers The Pentagon estimates the People’s Liberation Army Navy is expected to have about 400 hulls afloat by the end of this year. About 50 of those ships are frigates, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. The U.S. Navy has about 240 ships and submarines. This is a troubling statistic, experts say, as history shows larger fleets prevail in any confrontation. When conceived, the Constellation class was intended as a faster way for the U.S. Navy to build warships. It was based on an Italian design already in service, which was to be modified to meet U.S. requirements. But those modifications proved more extensive than planned. Costs escalated, and construction soon fell behind schedule. The delivery date for the USS Constellation in 2026 has already been pushed to 2029, according to a Congressional Research Service report. Many experts felt the Navy should shut down the troubled program. Related Article South Korean Aegis Destroyer King Sejong The Great (foreground) sails with USS Barry (left) and Japanese Destroyer Atago during joint drills on Feb. 22, 2023. South Korean and U.S. Warshipbuilders Sign Deal That Could Help Close Gap in Race Against China “The Constellation was a waste of money” and would not even meet the Navy’s needs for low-end threats, let alone a modern fleet like China’s, said analyst Carl Schuster, a former U.S. Navy Captain. He noted the ship has poor defenses against drones, aircraft, missiles, and even small boats. “It wouldn’t last long in a conflict with a Houthi-level threat,” he said, referring to the rebel group in Yemen threatening shipping around the Arabian Peninsula. “Another in a series of failed government shipbuilding programs,” said naval analyst Sal Mercogliano, a professor at Campbell University in North Carolina. Other Troubled Programs These include the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), derisively called “little crap ships” in some circles. A 2023 ProPublica investigation called the LCS shipbuilding program “one of the worst failures in the long history of military procurement of overpriced and ineffective weapon systems.” Since 2008, the Navy has commissioned 35 LCS ships, with two more under construction. ProPublica reported the total cost of this program could reach $100 billion. But the LCS ships have repeatedly malfunctioned and failed to provide the mission flexibility the Navy originally envisioned. The service is already retiring these vessels, some with only five years of active service. But the fate of the Constellation class, with two ships still being built, might be more akin to that of the Zumwalt-class destroyers. The plan to acquire 32 of those 16,000-ton stealth ships, which the Navy calls the “largest and most technologically advanced surface combatant in the world,” was slashed to just three as costs climbed. Like the Zumwalts, the two Constellations might end up as anomalies in the U.S. Navy. Related Article Australian Department of Defence Japan Sells Advanced Warships to Another Key U.S. Ally. What It Means for the Heavily Contested Pacific Fahy said on Tuesday that construction of the Constellation and the second ship of the class, the USS Congress, will continue, but its fate is undecided. “Those ships remain under review,” he said, indicating that the Navy wants to keep shipyards operational and their workforce busy while they implement a “strategic shift” in their construction program. Fincantieri Marine Group said in a statement that it would shift its workforce to other programs. “This new arrangement ensures continuity and predictability of workload for Fincantieri personnel” and the Great Lakes shipyards, it said, calling them a “vital pillar of the U.S. maritime industrial base.” Secretary of the Navy John Fahy speaks at the 4th Annual Indiana Northeast Defense Summit at Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Ind., on Nov. 12, 2025. Secretary of the Navy John Fahy speaks at the 4th Annual Indiana Northeast Defense Summit at Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Ind., on Nov. 12, 2025. Darron Cummings/AP Fahy said the U.S. shipbuilding capacity must be preserved. “Shipbuilding is a paramount concern. The Navy needs ships, and we look forward to building them at every shipyard that can do so,” Fahy said. Last summer, Fahy explained the Navy’s shipbuilding woes to Congress. “All of our programs are a mess,” he said during a U.S. House hearing in June. “I think our best program is six months behind schedule and 57% over budget… That’s the best one,” he testified. Washington has already begun utilizing foreign shipyards in South Korea and Japan to service some naval vessels, and a representative from a South Korean shipyard recently told CNN that building U.S. Navy ships there might be possible. But doing so would require changing U.S. law.
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