White House releases long-awaited Maritime Action Plan

Maritime Action Plan (MAP) was called for in President Trump’s April 9, 2025 Executive Order on Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance.[Photo: White House]

The White House has released the Maritime Action Plan (MAP) called for in President Trump’s April 9, 2025 Executive Order on Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance., which said that “the MAP will provide a strategy with specific actions to restore and create sustained resiliency for the American maritime industry.”

Since then maritime has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the MAP. What’s in it?

The 52-page MAP that has now been released is a far ranging and detailed document calling for action on multiple fronts..

The introduction to the document says that it is “informed not only by domestic imperatives but also by international realities, [and] outlines targeted steps to rejuvenate the MIB [Maritime Industrial Base].”

The MAP has been developed by the Secretary of State and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA), Marco Rubio and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russel Vought, in coordination with the Secretary of War, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Transportation, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

It calls for policies that modernize government procurement processes and streamline regulations to accelerate shipbuilding and reduce costs.

“By streamlining regulatory processes, strengthening interagency coordination, and providing reliable long-term funding and demand for U.S.-built ships, shipyards, and mariners, America will rebuild maritime strength at the speed and scale required to meet the challenges of today and the future,” the introduction. concludes.

The MAP has four pillars. Following are some extracts from the document:

Pillar I: Rebuild U.S. Shipbuilding Capacity and Capabilities

Recent data shows that the United States constructs less than one percent of commercial ships globally. Rebuilding America’s shipbuilding industrial capacity is critical to restoring America’s maritime strength.

Through a series of actions, the United States will accelerate shipyard modernization, broaden supply-chain diversification, and trigger the growth of a ready fleet of ships built in the United States and operated under the U.S. flag, while ensuring fiscal discipline and interagency alignment across Federal agencies. The result will be measurable security and economic returns.

Pillar I of this comprehensive, coordinated action plan lays out the urgent steps needed to rebuild the nation’s shipbuilding capacity, including:

• Increasing domestic shipbuilding capacity;
• Incentivizing investment in U.S. shipyards;
• Establishing Maritime Prosperity Zones to incentivize and align new domestic and allied investment in U.S. maritime industries and waterfront communities;
• Addressing myriad supply and demand issues; and,
• Reducing dependence on unreliable suppliers through heightened cooperation with allies and partners.

Pillar II: Reform Workforce Education and Training

Expansion of mariner training and education, modernization of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA), and maintenance of a comprehensive inventory of maritime training programs collectively anchor a robust, actionable plan to grow a capable and credentialed maritime workforce. Heightened attention to, and investment in, the U.S. maritime workforce will allow for expansion of the U.S. flagged fleet and align industry with both government objectives and the latest maritime education innovations.

Pillar II of the MAP recommends actions required to reform maritime workforce and education, including the following:

• Expanding mariner training and education to address workforce challenges in the maritime sector through maritime educational institutions and workforce transitions;
• Providing financial and regulatory incentives for the training of shipbuilders and U.S. credentialed mariners;
• Modernizing the USMMA through Federal investment to address urgent deferred
• maintenance projects and other mission-critical repairs and develop a five-year capital improvement plan based on the long-term Master Facilities Plan for the modernization of the campus; and
• Otherwise enhancing maritime training capabilities to meet industry needs.

Pillar III: Protect the Maritime Industrial Base

Strengthening trade, Federal procurement, and market signals are the levers that align commercial incentives with national security. Effective trade policy, customs enforcement, allied coordination, and Federal acquisition reform will generate predictable demand for U.S.- built and U.S.-flagged vessels.

Pillar III of the MAP lays out the urgent steps needed to protect the MIB and strengthen demand signals, including:

• Strengthen requirements for shipping government-impelled and commercial cargoes on U.S.-flagged vessels;
• Impose a Land Port Maintenance Tax to balance payments from importations across land ports versus maritime ports;
• Streamline and improve acquisition processes for USG vessels while reducing change orders; and
• Consider actions, as appropriate, based on USTR’s investigation of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) targeting of the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors for dominance.

A strong maritime industry strengthens U.S. capacity to sustain military logistics, secure vital trade routes, compete in the global maritime economy, maintain a continuous and efficient flow of goods in domestic and international commerce, and, in times of conflict, support a wartime economy. The national security, economic security, and industrial resilience pillar of the MAP includes several interrelated elements designed to translate maritime policy into a strategic advantage. These elements link industrial capacity, fleet readiness, and strategic posture. By integrating defense coordination, procurement reform, reserve readiness, and regional security strategies, these combined efforts enable ready fleets, durable industrial capacity, and measurable national security benefits and economic returns.

Pillar IV: National Security, Economic Security,and Industrial Resilience

Pillar IV of the MAP recommends actions needed to strengthen national security, economic security, and the resilience of the maritime industry, including:

• Strengthening the security and resilience of the MIB through strengthening component supply chains;
• Increasing the fleet of commercial vessels trading internationally under the U.S. flag;
• Establishing a Maritime Security Trust Fund;
• Fostering the development of the autonomous maritime technology industry;
• Developing a strategy to secure Arctic waterways and enable American prosperity in the face of evolving Arctic security challenges and associated risks; and
• Prioritizing the recapitalization of government owned sealift vessels.

Read the whole document HERE to see the detailed proposals made under the bullet points.