Trump officials join Chester’s Scanlon at Philly shipyard to christen new training vessel and tout U.S. shipbuilding revival

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Trump administration officials joined U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Chester, at the Hanwha Philly Shipyard on Friday to christen the T.S. Lone Star State.

The naval vessel is the newest ship to be built in the revitalized shipyard, part of an effort to restore the nation’s once dominant shipbuilding industry.

“The old adage goes, ‘He who controls the seas, controls the world,’ and for a long time, America controlled the seas,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy told the assembled crowd. “And there came a time, though, that we forgot that to control the seas, you actually have to build ships.”

It was Duffy’s second visit to promote new shipbuilding at the yard. His wife, Fox News contributor and reality television personality Rachel Campos-Duffy, christened the ship.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought announced the shipyard also won a new contract to build the U.S.S. Golden Defender, which will be part of the Pentagon’s new anti-missile defense system.

“This new ship will not only support the president’s policies of restoring American maritime dominance, but also support the president’s ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system over the entirety of our nation,” Vought said. “The Golden Defender and the administration’s entire shipbuilding effort will continue to call [on] Americans, such as the great workforce here at Philly shipyard, back to the important vocation of shipbuilding.”

The Philly shipyard is the birthplace of the U.S. Navy but closed operations in 1996, when it went into commercial use. However, commercial orders ceased in 2019. Duffy and Vought heavily credited President Donald Trump for the new domestic shipbuilding activity, pointing to his April executive order, “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance,” though new shipbuilding activity at the shipyard predates that.

Scanlon worked with administration officials in Trump’s first term — including former DOT Secretary Elaine Chao — to secure a $630 million contract in 2020 that led to the construction of three new training vessels, predecessors to the T.S. Lone Star State. In February, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., toured the shipyard to lobby for his SHIPS for America Act.

“This christening represents just the latest in an ongoing bipartisan effort stretching back over the last three administrations to reinvigorate United States shipbuilding and particularly to revitalize this shipyard,” Scanlon said at the event.

Korean company Hanwha bought the shipyard in 2024 and, in April, announced $5 billion in investments into future shipbuilding. Another merchant marine training ship is already in the pipeline along with the Golden Defender. The company expects that the new orders will create thousands of jobs.

In his speech, Vought sought to push back on any criticism that the Hanwha Philly Shipyard is building “so-called foreign ships.”

“Yes, they are a direct foreign investment … but these are U.S. shipyards,” he said. “These are U.S. ships and these are U.S. jobs.”

The Philadelphia Navy Yard is likely to see even more activity in the coming years. Rhoads Industries and General Dynamics Electric Boat secured a 10-year, $2.5 billion agreement to expand submarine manufacturing there, supporting another roughly 1,350 jobs through 2035.

The T.S. Lone Star State is the fourth national security multi-mission vessel built in Philly and, like its sisters, will serve as a training ship for merchant marine cadets. The T.S. Lone Star State will soon head to the Texas A&M Maritime Academy, a highly specialized maritime training program. Graduates are recruited to work as deck and engineering officers in the U.S. Merchant Marine, serving on cargo ships, oil tankers and ferries around the world.

The new vessels boast two command bridges — one for training and the other for piloting — classrooms, living quarters and a mess hall. At 524 feet long and 89 feet wide, it can berth 760 people, including 600 cadets who train at sea. It is also equipped with a helicopter pad, modern medical facilities and space for emergency provisions and first responders, in case they are called on for national emergencies.

Jeff Dixon, president of Virginia-based TOTE Services, which oversees vessel construction for the U.S. Maritime Administration, said the partnership with the government and Hanwha has delivered the ships on schedule while helping revitalize domestic shipbuilding and boosting enrollment at state maritime academies.

“We’re able to create jobs, reduce costs, accelerate timelines and deliver state-of-the-art vessels all, most importantly, while being good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars,” Dixon said. “This isn’t the exception. This is the model and it is already being put to work again.”