Navy Overhauls Shipbuilding With New $2.2 Billion Marine Contract

The Marines are getting eight new landing ships, essential in doing what the Marines do - landing on beaches under fire - and they are getting them much more quickly than the accustomed military acquisition process would have allowed.

Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao took to his official X account with the news.

We are accelerating the shipbuilding process by changing how we do business.

With today’s $2.2 billion award, TOTE Services will serve as the Vessel Construction Manager and oversee the production of up to eight Medium Landing Ships, which our Marines need to transport and land… https://t.co/sSInTwPx9p
— Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao (@SECNAV) July 13, 2026

Secretary Cao writes:

We are accelerating the shipbuilding process by changing how we do business.
With today’s $2.2 billion award, TOTE Services will serve as the Vessel Construction Manager and oversee the production of up to eight Medium Landing Ships, which our Marines need to transport and land naval expeditionary forces.
Using a proven design and applying commercial best practices, we’re redesigning the shipbuilding model to deliver capabilities to the Fleet faster.

From this, it sounds like "not re-inventing the wheel" had a big part in streamlining the process.

Pentagon Announces New 'War Force,' but Recruits Will Be Pounding Keyboards, Not Manning Tanks

TOTE Services, the construction management firm selected, has this to say about the new landing ships:

The Medium Landing Ship, or LSM, is a U.S. Navy and Marine Corps program to build a new class of landing ships that can transport Marines, vehicles, equipment, and supplies in support of Marine Corps operations.
The program is expected to begin with an initial group of up to eight ships in support of the Navy and Marine Corps’ planned 35-ship LSM fleet. These ships are intended to help Marines move and sustain forces in coastal and island environments where speed, flexibility, and reliable logistics are critical.

TOTE Services isn't the actual builder, but they will be overseeing construction at the various subcontracting firms:

TOTE Services will serve as Vessel Construction Manager for the LSM program. In that role, TOTE Services will hold the prime contract with the Navy and manage shipyard subcontracts directly, creating one accountable management structure between government requirements and shipyard execution.
The shipyards building these vessels are central to the success of the LSM program. TOTE Services’s role is to support their work by helping create a clearer, more coordinated path to delivery: organizing requirements, managing risk, aligning suppliers and program stakeholders, and reducing friction wherever possible. By managing the complexity around construction, TOTE Services helps the shipyards focus on what they do best: build high-quality ships for the Navy, Marine Corps, and the Marines and sailors who will rely on them.

Five months from contract solicitation to award is showing a speed we're no longer accustomed to seeing in the military acquisitions process. Now, the key would seem to be how quickly the ships are actually built. The snail's pace of the military development and acquisition process has been notorious in recent years, and we're starting to see that change; the new F-47 fighter and the B-22 bomber programs are proceeding much faster than we might have expected only a few months ago.

It's amazing what a difference a change in priority from the White House can make.

Editor's Note: Thanks to President Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America's military.

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