Graphic rendering of the future USS Lafayette (FFG 65), named in honor of Marquis de Lafayette and his service during the American Revolutionary War. Lafayette was schedule to be the fourth of the new Constellation-class guided missile frigates. (Shannon Renfroe/U.S. Navy)
The Navy said late Tuesday it plans to cancel the bulk of the $22 billion Constellation-class guided-missile frigate program dogged by delays and cost overruns.
Navy Secretary John Phelan announced the cut in a short video posted on X.
“From Day 1, I made it clear: I won’t spend a dollar if it doesn’t strengthen readiness or our ability to win,” Phelan said against a backdrop of American, Navy and Marine Corps flags. “To keep that promise, we’re reshaping how we build and field the fleet — working with industry to deliver warfighting advantage, beginning with a strategic shift away from the Constellation-class frigate program.”
The American unit of Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri S.p.A. won a 2020 competition to build frigates for the Navy. The ships were to be built at Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard on Lake Michigan near Green Bay, Wis., about 170 miles north of Milwaukee.
The first two ships, the USS Constellation and USS Congress, will be completed. Phelan said an additional four ships planned in the early phase of the class will be cut.
Phelan said the move would free up money and shipyard space for other projects.
Fincantieri said in a statement released Tuesday that it “expects” the Navy to continue supporting its shipyards with orders for as-yet-undetermined new vessels to replace the lost frigate work.
Phelan’s action was backed by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who called it a “tough, but vital call,” in a post on X.
The original Pentagon plan called for building a version of a “European multipurpose frigate” already in service with France and Italy. The original contract called for the French shipbuilder Naval Group to build some later ships of the class.
The Constellation and the Congress are projected to have a top speed of 26 knots and carry a crew of 200 sailors and officers. The ships will have the capability to fire anti-aircraft, anti-ship and ship-to-shore missiles.
Modifications to the design ordered by the Pentagon have delayed the construction and delivery timeline. The first ship, the Constitution, will be delivered no earlier than the end of 2029.
The move comes as the Pentagon wrestles with delays and cost overruns across several major Navy programs, including the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine and the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers.
Amid the many delays, there have been calls from some in the Pentagon and Congress to shift shipbuilding to new priorities, such as polar icebreakers, uncrewed vessels and designs better suited to potential future combat with China in the Indo-Pacific region.
Under a Trump Administration working plan dubbed “The Golden Fleet,” the Navy could grow from its current 287 ships to as many as 300 crewed vessels.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in early April 2025 allowing the Department of Defense to ax programs that are delayed or over budget by 15%.
At the time, Trump ordered the Pentagon to draw up a “potential cancellation list.” The order also directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to recommend additional programs that could be cut if not aligned with future military mission priorities.
The order was accompanied by a White House list of programs that possibly met the cutback criteria, including the delayed construction of the Sentinel ICBM missile program and Boeing’s construction of a new Air Force One presidential jet.
“Nine Navy ship programs (not just individual ships, but the entire procurement program) are between one and three years behind schedule,” the White House release said.
