WEST PALM BEACH: US President Donald Trump will make an announcement on shipbuilding afterward Monday (Dec 22), the White Home stated, as Washington seeks to strengthen naval capability amid rising concern over China’s quickly increasing fleet.
The announcement is scheduled for 4.30pm (2130 GMT) in Florida, the place Trump is spending the vacations at his Mar-a-Lago residence. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Navy Secretary John Phelan are anticipated to attend.
The White Home didn’t present particulars of the deliberate remarks.
NEW FRIGATE PLANS IN FOCUS
Trump’s announcement comes simply days after the US Navy publicised plans for a brand new class of frigates, generally known as the FF(X), which it stated would “complement the fleet’s bigger, multi-mission warships”.
Phelan stated the FF(X) design could be based mostly on an current vessel constructed by shipbuilder HII that’s already in service with the US Coast Guard. The goal is for the primary of the brand new frigates to be within the water by 2028.
The transfer follows a shake-up of earlier naval plans. In late November, Phelan stated 4 of the six deliberate Constellation-class frigates could be cancelled, whereas two already underneath development have been positioned “underneath evaluate”.
“I can’t spend a single taxpayer greenback except it contributes on to readiness and our capacity to defeat future threats,” Phelan stated on the time in a video posted on X.
