When it comes to the world's most powerful naval power today, the United States is undoubtedly on the list. The United States currently has 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and its total naval tonnage is far ahead of other countries, and its superior strength is unmatched. However, despite America's position at the top of the world's naval power, its shipbuilding industry has declined beyond the imagination. Some have even raised the intriguing question of whether the United States will still be equipped to deal with a protracted battle even with 11 aircraft carriers.
The U.S. shipbuilding industry demonstrated great strength during World War II. From the Boltzmann Fire to Japan's surrender, in just six years, the United States built 24 capital carriers, 117 escort carriers, and 11 light aircraft carriers, bringing the total to 155. This means that, on average, the United States launches more than two aircraft carriers every month. In addition to aircraft carriers, the U.S. shipbuilding industry produces a large number of destroyers, frigates, cruisers, and civilian merchant ships. At that time, the United States also implemented the "Freedom Ship" program, which aimed to quickly and massively build low-cost thousand-ton merchant ships. Under the program, the United States built the fastest Liberty ship, and it took only 4 days and hours from keel laying to launch, a feat that shocked the whole world.
Today, however, the U.S. shipbuilding industry is in decline. According to statistics, there are currently only 5 shipyards in the United States capable of manufacturing warships, and only one of them has the ability to build aircraft carriers, that is, Newport News Shipyard. More worryingly, even if Newport News Shipyard is the only manufacturer that can build aircraft carriers, it will not avoid the fate of debilitation.
According to Newport News Shipyard's financial statements, the plant's total sales in 2021 were only about $7 billion and its profits were only $400 million. As a privately owned shipyard, Newport News Shipyard is under severe financial pressure to scale up and update equipment. However, with current profit margins, these targets have become tough. In addition, the Newport News Shipyard has only one dry dock that can build aircraft carriers. This means that if a war suddenly comes, the United States will not be able to create a second aircraft carrier in a short period of time.
In addition, the other four shipyards in the United States that can build warships can only barely maintain the status quo. In fact, the shipbuilding industry in the United States is already in the state of Newport News Shipyard monopoly, but in this situation, the ecology of the entire industry can be imagined. Especially for large warships, in addition to the dry dock of the Newport News shipyard that can build aircraft carriers, there are only two docks in the United States that can build large warships, such as destroyers.
The decline of the shipbuilding industry in the United States is mainly due to the large-scale exolocation of industrial capacity in the context of globalization. As globalization has driven, many manufacturing industries have moved to Asia, where labor costs are lower. The shipbuilding industry is a huge upstream industry that requires extensive downstream industry support. When the downstream industry of the United States moved out, the shipbuilding industry in the United States had to import many needed products from abroad, which virtually increased the cost of shipbuilding. The increase in costs has led to lower profit margins in the U.S. shipbuilding industry, making it difficult for a large number of shipyards to update their equipment and thus compete with the shipbuilding industry in other countries. The shrinking profits of large U.S. shipyards will also lead to a large number of layoffs, trapping the U.S. shipbuilding industry in a vicious circle.