The Shipyard States: How Regional Naval Industrial Strategy Is Becoming a National Security Imperative

Mapping the Shipyard States: How Industrial Capacity Is Becoming Naval Power

For much of the post–Cold War era, U.S. shipbuilding was treated as a legacy industrial concern—important, but largely static. The 2026 National Defense Strategy makes clear that this assumption no longer holds. As maritime competition with China accelerates, shipbuilding capacity has reemerged as a frontline national security issue, and U.S. states are once again behaving like strategic actors in naval power.