The use of allied shipyards, either as contracted manufacturers of components or as investors in U.S. facilities, will be “critical” to bolstering the American defense industrial base, President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Navy, John Phelan, said in his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday.
The businessman and fundraiser told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he received a text message from the commander in chief at 1:18 a.m. one morning with three pictures of rusty warships docked in a shipyard.
