Building On Her Discussions in South Korea, Duckworth Meets with Hanwha Ocean Leadership to Strengthen Auxiliary Shipbuilding Partnerships

Building On Her Discussions in South Korea, Duckworth Meets with Hanwha Ocean Leadership to Strengthen Auxiliary Shipbuilding Partnerships

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - Combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)-a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services (SASC) and Foreign Relations (SFRC) Committees-had a productive meeting with Insub Jung, President of Hanwha Ocean, and other top representatives of the South Korean company to discuss some of ways we can strengthen our nations' auxiliary shipbuilding partnership. The Senator's meeting comes after her recent trip to South Korea and Japan-two global leaders in the shipbuilding industry-where she met with government, military and business leaders to talk about how we can work together to surge production of auxiliary vessels, strengthen our fleet readiness and support our sealift capacity and workforce. Photos of this meeting can be found on the Senator's website.

"Our sealift and auxiliary fleet is essential to our national security and the safety of our troops-and yet our fleet is both aging and insufficient in number to support our brave warfighters around the world," said Senator Duckworth. "It was great to meet with leaders of Hanwha Ocean and continue our conversations to strengthen our auxiliary shipbuilding partnership. It's critical that we continue efforts to expand American shipbuilding here at home, but we must also work closely with our partners and allies abroad to ensure our auxiliary fleet is as strong as possible in the event of crisis and conflict. I'm committed to doing everything I can to reach these goals."

Senator Duckworth is a steadfast advocate for strengthening our auxiliary shipbuilding capacity and workforce. She successfully secured a provision in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) bill text-which passed through the SASC committee in July-that would require the Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of the Army to identify opportunities to enter joint ventures between U.S. military, U.S. companies and foreign partners to co-produce auxiliary vessels and small boats.

To help explore and identify opportunities to reach this goal, Duckworth also led a Senate delegation to South Korea alongside U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) and met with President Lee Jae Myung, Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun, Minster of National Defense Ahn Gyu-Back along with other government and military leaders. Additionally, Senator Duckworth held a shipbuilding roundtable with representatives of Hanwha Ocean, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries-the "Big Three" shipbuilders of South Korea.

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