{
  "id": 5780141,
  "title": "How Asian shipyards in Japan, Korea and Philippines keep US warships battle ready",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/05/how-asian-shipyards-in-japan-korea-and-philippines-keep-us-warships",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-05T14:00:06.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Reuters Business via SCMP",
    "slug": "reuters-business-via-scmp",
    "url": "https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3366489/how-asian-shipyards-japan-korea-and-philippines-keep-us-warships-battle-ready"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Benfold experienced a power failure in July and was sent to Subic Bay, Philippines for emergency repairs. This port is part of a growing network of US Navy repair and maintenance hubs in the region, aimed at outsourcing major maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) work on US naval vessels to strategic allies. While US law requires major warships to be built domestically, outsourcing MRO offers greater flexibility, particularly for forward-deployed vessels.\n\nThe Western Pacific region, including Japan and South Korea, holds significant importance for the US due to their distance from the continental US and Washington's escalating strategic rivalry with Beijing. By establishing the capacity to repair and sustain a larger number of ships in proximity to potential conflict zones in the Indo-Pacific, the United States could extend deployments, especially in wartime, by minimizing the necessity to recall ships to the US mainland for repairs. A recent report from the Washington-based think tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies supports this assertion.\n\nJapan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Yokohama Dockyard & Machinery Works is the largest ship repair yard in Japan, with a capacity to handle vessels up to 270,000 tonnes. MHI successfully serviced the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Milius in 2019, marking the initial instance of the US Navy outsourcing such services to local Japanese firms. In 2024, South Korean shipyards Hanwha Ocean and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) became the first to receive Master Ship Repair Agreement (MSRA) certifications from the US Navy. Hanwha Ocean's repair works on the USNS Wally Schirra and USS Yukon, along with HD Hyundai Mipo Dockyard's overhaul project for the Lewis and Clark-class vessel USNS Alan Shepard, demonstrate the increasing significance of regional allies in MRO services for US naval vessels.",
  "summary": "After being stranded in the South China Sea following a power failure in July, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Benfold was towed to Subic Bay in the Philippines for emergency repairs. The facility is among the repair and maintenance hubs the US Navy has been developing in the region, strategically pushing for allies to perform major maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) work on US naval…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "South China Morning Post",
        "title": "How Asian shipyards in Japan, Korea and Philippines keep US warships battle ready",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/05/how-asian-shipyards-in-japan-korea-and-philippines-keep-us-warships-5781405",
        "published": "2026-09-05T14:00:06.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}