DETROIT—The naval shipbuilding industry needs to lean in on robotics and automation to ease workforce challenges and boost performance, Navy Secretary John Phelan said Wednesday.
“We need to modernize how we train. I’ve been to 10 shipyards, and I’ve had one shipyard tell me how great their training was,” Phelan said at the Reindustrialize conference for tech and manufacturing startups and investors. “I spent one hour with the workers who told me how bad their training was—I realized there’s a big problem here. And we need to start equipping them with the tools that they need to get their job done easier.”
Incorporating more automation and robotics could help address workforce challenges, he said.
“A lot of people are afraid of automation and robotics. I think it just enhances and makes the workers’ jobs easier. I’ve seen that at a number of yards. It’s not to replace jobs, it’s to make [them] more efficient,” Phelan said.
Phelan’s comments follow President Donald Trump’s visit to Pittsburgh for a major energy and AI summit earlier this week. During that summit, two companies—Gecko Robotics and BPMI—announced a partnership that could help automate the documentation processes required for the technical oversight of naval nuclear submarine components.
The White House has made shipbuilding a major priority, with an executive order that called for an increase in “the number of participants and competitors within United States shipbuilding, and to reduce cost overruns and production delays for surface, subsurface, and unmanned programs.”
The Navy’s shipbuilding programs—particularly nuclear submarines—are years behind schedule due to a confluence of challenges, including supply chain constraints and workforce shortages. To address it, the Navy has pumped billions of dollars into the maritime industrial base to increase wages, attract new entrants, and improve infrastructure.
The service could get $47.4 billion for shipbuilding and conversion, split between $20.8 billion in the 2026 defense base budget proposal and $26.5 billion in one-time budget reconciliation funds, according to budget documents.
Phelan, who ran his own investment firm before filling the Navy’s top job, has stressed cost efficiency as a key priority, particularly when it comes to shipbuilding.
“My goal is to make it easier to do business with the Department of the Navy. We are setting realistic, achievable schedules, and we are committing to them. We are eliminating the waste and inefficiencies that drain resources without delivering results,” Phelan said. “We are implementing smarter contract structures—ones that reward performance, support long-term planning, and allow for meaningful accountability and results-based outcomes. We are investing in our workforce, modernizing shipyards, and utilizing advanced manufacturing and other technologies to improve throughput.”
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