Frigate Touted By Trump Is Among Navy’s ‘Least Performing’ Programs

By Tony Capaccio

May 13, 2025 (Bloomberg) –A $22 billion frigate project that President Donald Trump once touted as “the most beautiful, they look like yachts” was among the US Navy’s least performing programs last year, according to a previously undisclosed report to Congress.

The list of low performers in the report prepared by the Navy’s acquisition branch also includes the service’s newest aircraft carrier landing equipment, top anti-radar missile, a drone for refueling jets, and the Marines’ new hovercraft for moving troops.

The report was sent to the four congressional defense committees in mid-January. Navy Secretary John Phelan will begin his fiscal 2026 budget testimony Wednesday before the House defense appropriations subcommittee. 

A Navy spokesman couldn’t provide more details on why the five systems were listed as low performers, citing the reasons as “controlled unclassified information.”

Systems listed as meeting their goals, or best performing, were the AN/SPY-6 air and missile defense radar for Aegis destroyers, the MQ-4C Triton surveillance drone, KC-130J transport and E-2D Advanced Hawkeye surveillance aircraft.

Navy shipbuilding delays and overruns have drawn the White House’s ire, sparking criticism in Trump’s sweeping April 9 executive order on defense procurement. A fact sheet noted “nine Navy ship programs (not just individual ships, but the entire procurement program) are between one and three years behind schedule.”

‘Beautiful, Like Yachts’

The most prominent of the low-performing systems listed in the Navy report is the $22 billion Constellation-class Frigate built by a Wisconsin-based subsidiary of Fincantieri SpA. The project is estimated to be as much as three years behind on reaching its initial 2026 delivery.

Read More: Navy Frigate and Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Face Similar Design Challenges

Trump referred to the frigate in his closing remarks at the Republican National Convention last year, reminding the audience of the “massive ship contract” awarded to Wisconsin in 2020 and saying he made “a little design change.”

“These are the most beautiful, they look like yachts,” Trump said.

Fincantieri SpA spokesman Eric Dent said in a statement that he hasn’t seen the Navy report, “but we are ramping up production on the frigate line. Things are really coming together.”

The Naval Sea Systems Command in a statement said the frigate’s delay is “primarily due to challenges in completing the ship’s design — not from technological hurdles, but from the complexity of integrating multiple design products.” 

The design will be validated by the end of the month, it said, after being stabilized by the Navy’s “co-located program and technical leadership with the shipbuilder’s design team and surged Navy-funded engineering support over the past 17 months.”

Aircraft Carrier Gear

Aside from the frigate, the list of low performers cited in the report includes General Atomics’ Advanced Arresting Gear or AAG installed on the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, and Northrop Grumman Corp’s new extended range anti-radar missile.

A GA spokesperson said the Navy would respond for comment. A Northrop Grumman spokesperson referred comment to the Navy.

Meanwhile, the program manager of Boeing Co.’s unmanned MQ-25 Stingray drone designed to refuel Navy jets, which was also named in the report, said the company has owned its challenges. The program’s initial production has been delayed by at least two years because of issues with some of the aircraft’s design and manufacturing process, according to a Pentagon assessment.

“We are on track for our first flight later this year,” said Troy Rutherford, Boeing’s vice president for the program.

Another low performer listed in the report is Textron Inc.’s “Ship To Shore” Marine Corps hovercraft, which has had previous propeller blade and gearbox issues.

Ryan Schaffernocker, senior vice president for marine systems at Textron, said in a statement: “Our team and suppliers based across the US have established an efficient production line that has delivered 13 craft with 14 more in production or test.”

© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.

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