Navy’s Review of South Korean, Japanese and Turkish Frigates Is Due Thursday, With No Design Chosen

A Navy frigate study of foreign designs, including South Korea’s Chungnam class, an export version of Japan’s Mogami class and Turkey’s Istanbul class, is due to the White House on Thursday, Nov. 12. The review is not a formal ship competition, and no design or contractor has been selected, according to U.S. Naval Institute News, which first reported the study’s scope in September, and a Nov. 8 report by UPI based on Asia Today.

What the Navy was told to study, and when it is due

After an Aug. 13 White House memorandum opened the door to foreign designs by invoking a national-security interest waiver to a law that generally bars foreign-built warships from U.S. naval service, Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao directed the office of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition William Mahan to oversee a study of international combatants and certain Military Sealift Command ships, USNI News reported, citing memo language it reviewed. That assessment is due Nov. 12, 2026.

Three industry sources familiar with the deliberations told USNI News that the international designs under consideration include Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ export Mogami-class guided-missile frigate, the Chungnam-class frigate built by several South Korean yards, and Turkey’s Istanbul class, the last of which entered the discussion after a conversation between Turkish officials and President Donald Trump on the sidelines of July’s NATO summit, two sources told the publication. Capt. Ron Flanders, a spokesperson for the Navy acquisition office, told USNI News that “the President has directed the Navy to aggressively increase domestic shipbuilding capacity, including leveraging the proven shipbuilding skills and industrial expertise of our allies,” and that the Navy was “actively developing options to fulfill the President’s intent to deliver ships faster while ensuring long-term investment, technology transfer, and workforce expansion within United States shipyards.” He did not directly address an open frigate competition.

UPI, in a Nov. 8 report translated from Asia Today, said the findings are scheduled to be submitted to the White House by Thursday and repeated that the review “does not constitute a formal procurement competition, and no ship design or preferred contractor has been selected.” The Boston Report is treating the Thursday date as the deadline first established in the Navy direction reported by USNI News, now arriving, not as a newly announced contest.

The “Finland model” and the fight in Congress

Sources told USNI News the concept under discussion could follow a so-called “Finland model,” in which as many as the first two hulls would be built in foreign yards before construction shifted to U.S. facilities, with foreign investment in American shipyards, technology transfer and workforce expansion. Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought has publicly touted that approach, USNI News reported. UPI similarly described a model in which foreign contractors would have to build or buy into U.S. yards, hire and train American workers and develop U.S. supply chains, rather than simply export finished warships.

Congress is trying to limit that path. USNI News reported that, in draft fiscal 2027 defense-policy language, the Senate Armed Services Committee sought to eliminate the national-security waiver, and the House Armed Services Committee’s draft included an amendment that would prevent authorized funding from going toward contracts to purchase an American warship built in a foreign yard. UPI, writing in November, said the House-passed fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision that would prohibit using defense appropriations to procure U.S. Navy combat vessels constructed at foreign shipyards, and that the White House opposes the restriction. Those bills have not yet been reconciled, and the NDAA itself is still unfinished in the lame-duck session.

USNI News also reported that the reconciliation portion of the fiscal 2027 budget proposal included $1.85 billion for a foreign warship design study focused on purchasing warships from Japan and South Korea, Navy officials told the publication. That reconciliation package is now in serious doubt after the midterms, as The Boston Report has described in its defense-budget coverage this cycle.

A domestic frigate is already in the mix

Any foreign design would also face a U.S. alternative. After the Constellation-class frigate program was cancelled, the Navy shifted to the FF(X) patrol frigate based on the Coast Guard’s National Security Cutter. Rear Adm. Casey Moton, the Navy’s portfolio acquisition executive for shipbuilding, told a symposium in late September that a foreign-design study was running in parallel with development of HII Ingalls’ FF(X) Flight I, that the design had passed a critical design review earlier in the year, and that the Navy had awarded a $282 million advanced contract for long-lead items in April, USNI News reported on Sept. 27. The assessment of foreign designs, he said, was due to the White House on Nov. 12. He declined to say whether the Navy would pursue two classes or one. “I am not going to get ahead of what we are doing in response to the presidential memo,” Moton said. A senior Navy official had told USNI News that building both the Ingalls frigate and a foreign design remained on the table. Rear Adm. Brian Metcalf, then a deputy program acquisition executive for combatants, said in a July video that “the Navy can’t operate with only one size ship” and that frigates could fill escort and other missions that now often fall to Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

UPI, citing South Korean industry officials, described the Chungnam class as a 3,600-ton ship whose lead vessel, ROKS Chungnam, was built by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and delivered to the South Korean Navy in 2024, with follow-on ships at other Korean yards, including work connected to Hanwha Ocean, which has acquired Philly Shipyard in Pennsylvania. Those industrial details come from that Nov. 8 report and were not independently verified by The Boston Report in Korean procurement records. UPI also said a Chungnam selection, if it ever occurred, would not automatically assign a lead role to any one Korean company.

The Navy’s wider shipbuilding debate also includes amphibious ships and prepositioning, a subject Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao has been touring in person. Thursday’s study is a report to the White House, not a source-selection decision. Until the document is released or formally described by the Navy, claims about which design is ahead should be treated as industry speculation.

Sources

• USNI News: Japanese, South Korean, Turkish Warships Under Consideration for New U.S. Frigate Competition (Sept. 1, 2026)
• UPI: South Korean frigate in contention for U.S. Navy program (Nov. 8, 2026)
• USNI News: HII FF(X) Patrol Frigate Program Progressing as Navy Considers Foreign Options (Sept. 27, 2026)