![Senior U.S. Navy and Marine Corps officials visit HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan [Provided by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS)]](https://wimg.mk.co.kr/news/cms/202611/09/rcv.YNA.20261108.PYH2026110814650050400_P1.jpg)
It has emerged belatedly that senior U.S. Navy and Marine Corps officials responsible for shipbuilding and logistics visited a Korean shipyard in person to assess its warship-building capabilities.
After the U.S. midterm elections, amid growing attention to the momentum behind MASGA (Make American Shipbuilding Great Again), a U.S.-South Korea shipbuilding cooperation project, attention is focused on whether the U.S. military officials’ visit to the site will signal expanded cooperation.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) on the 9th, Brendan Rogers, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment; Lt. Gen. Andrew Nivell, Chief of Staff for Facilities and Logistics of the U.S. Marine Corps; and Maj. Gen. Valerie Jackson, commander of the U.S. Marine Corps in Korea, visited the HD Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in Ulsan on the 4th.
The visit stands out because senior officials responsible for facilities and logistics in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps went to a shipyard in South Korea to see its shipbuilding facilities and technological capabilities firsthand.
The delegation toured the shipyard facilities and received a briefing from HD HHI on the company’s operations and technology. Joo Won-ho, HD HHI’s president and head of its naval ship and medium-sized ship business, reportedly welcomed the U.S. delegation.
The U.S. Department of Defense said the purpose of the visit was to assess naval shipbuilding capabilities, military infrastructure and logistics support systems across South Korea. The delegation also met with military leaders, facilities officials and defense industry representatives, and considered ways to enhance maritime sustainment capabilities and operational readiness and strengthen the U.S.-South Korea alliance.
The visit is significant because it took place as South Korea and the United States pursue MASGA, a cooperative initiative to rebuild the U.S. shipbuilding industry. It can be seen as an effort by the United States to assess firsthand the Korean shipbuilding industry’s production capacity and technological capabilities, and whether they could be used to sustain its naval power and rebuild its shipbuilding base.
MASGA is a project aimed not only at shipbuilding cooperation but also at replacing aging U.S. warships, maintaining naval strength and restoring the competitiveness of the domestic shipbuilding industry. The United States faces shortages of shipbuilding workers and production capacity, making cooperation with South Korea’s shipbuilding industry, which has world-class shipbuilding capabilities, a frequently cited key alternative.
HD HHI is also seeking to enter the U.S. shipbuilding market. Last October, it agreed with U.S. construction and engineering company Kiewit to establish a joint venture to set up a shipyard in the United States. The plan is to secure a local production base while applying Korean shipbuilding technology and experience to rebuilding the U.S. shipbuilding industry.
However, challenges remain before MASGA can produce tangible results. Factors include legal restrictions on building warships in the United States, the interests of the local shipbuilding industry and labor, and legislative support from Congress. There are forecasts that changes in the makeup of Congress after the U.S. midterm elections could also affect the Trump administration’s efforts to advance its shipbuilding policies.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Defense also released photos of Assistant Secretary Rogers and Lt. Gen. Nivell visiting Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, among others.
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
