By Marcus Weisgerber

The U.S. Navy plans to hire a private company to manage the construction of new Marine Corps landing ships, marking a shift in an oversight role exclusively performed by government officials since World War II.

The move is the latest attempt by the Trump administration and Navy to speed up the often slow and overbudget shipbuilding process by adopting practices more commonly used in the commercial sector, according to Navy officials.

Typically, Navy employees based at the top shipyards provide project oversight, contract administration, IT management and other functions. Now, a vessel-construction manager will assume that role, meaning the third-party company is in control of the shipyard's performance.

The Navy command historically responsible for that oversight has lost technical expertise as seasoned employees have retired and, more recently, through governmentwide cuts pushed through by the Department of Government Efficiency, said Bryan Clark, a naval expert with the Hudson Institute.

"[Naval Sea Systems Command is] even less capable of doing the kind of technical management of a shipbuilding project than they were in the past," Clark said.

The command was unable to immediately provide a number of how many employees it has lost.

Navy shipbuilding projects have experienced years of delays and cost increases because of a mix of mismanagement and contractor performance. The Trump administration last year canceled an effort to buy new frigates because the Navy tinkered with a ship's proven design so much that the project fell years behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget.

If successful, the Navy could expand the private-company management arrangement to other programs, according to TD Cowen analyst Roman Schweizer. The third-party manager could be less tolerant of cost overruns and delays. The Navy will handle some functions, including inspecting and accepting the completed ships, the service spokesperson said.

"This could result in tougher penalties to shipbuilders for not meeting cost/performance targets in contracts," Schweizer wrote in a Wednesday note to investors. "It could also benefit shipbuilders by preventing the Navy from making changes to designs or contract terms that increase schedule delays and costs."

Under the new construct, the Marine Corps Medium Landing Ship will be based on the design of Damen Naval's LST 100. The craft would carry Marines and their equipment directly onto the beach. Bollinger Shipyards and Fincantieri Marinette Marine will build the ships, the Navy said.

The Navy began soliciting bids Wednesday for the vessel-construction manager that would oversee the two shipbuilders and decide the best strategy for buying additional landing ships.

"It's a proven model," Clark said. "The key will be for NAVSEA to keep its hands out of it and let the vessel construction manager do their job."

The Navy hasn't used the third-party approach to shipbuilding oversight since it produced thousands of Liberty cargo ships during World War II. Vessel-construction managers are more commonly used by cruise lines, which don't have internal shipbuilding expertise, according to Clark.

But other parts of the government are already using the model with positive results. The Transportation Department's Maritime Administration uses TOTE Services as the vessel construction manager overseeing Philly Shipyard's construction of training ships called National Security Multi-Mission Vessels.

"It's been a big success by pretty much everybody's account and has sped up the production of these multi mission vessels and controlled costs, so they actually are getting done on time and on budget," Clark said.

Write to Marcus Weisgerber at marcus.weisgerber@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 18, 2026 17:56 ET (22:56 GMT)

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