South Korea’s Hanwha is set to work with the US Navy on the construction of a new generation of frigates, as Washington seeks to accelerate naval modernisation and draw more heavily on allied shipbuilding capacity according to the Yonhap News Agency.

Speaking in Florida, President Donald Trump outlined plans for a new class of US combat vessels, positioning the frigate programme as part of a broader effort to expand and revitalise the American fleet. The initiative reflects growing concern in Washington about maritime competition and the need for faster, more flexible production of warships.

The involvement of Hanwha underscores Seoul’s push to deepen defence-industrial cooperation with the US. South Korea has emerged as one of the world’s most competitive shipbuilding nations, and its major groups have been courting US partners amid constraints in American shipyard capacity and labour, Yonhap adds. Hanwha Ocean, in particular, has been expanding its overseas footprint as it seeks a larger role in naval construction beyond Asia.

The US Navy has said the new frigates are intended to be smaller and more manoeuvrable than existing multi-role warships, designed to operate alongside larger vessels rather than replace them. The programme forms part of a wider reshaping of fleet composition, with an emphasis on agility, distributed firepower and rapid deployment.

Hanwha’s growing presence in the US has been reinforced by its investment in a naval shipyard in Philadelphia on the Atlantic coast. The group has committed billions of dollars to upgrading the facility, aligning with a broader South Korean pledge to support US shipbuilding under a bilateral trade and industrial cooperation framework.

Alongside the frigate plans, Trump set out an ambitious vision for a dramatically expanded fleet, including the construction of new heavy warships under what he has dubbed a “Golden Fleet”. These vessels, envisaged as significantly larger and more heavily armed than current surface combatants, would be built in US yards, with the administration signalling talks with operators and potential new owners of naval facilities.