Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last month that the Trump administration has proposed roughly $1.8 billion for the offshore production of warships because U.S. shipyards don’t have enough capacity.

U.S. Sen. Angus King, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters Thursday that Hegseth’s assertion “just didn’t hold water once we examined it.”

“The problem with that argument is that the backlogs in the Korean and Japanese shipyards are just as long, if not longer, than the backlogs here,” King said at a virtual press conference.

That’s why last week, a defense spending bill that advanced out of King’s committee did not include the proposal from the Trump administration to build naval destroyers overseas.

King said the committee also amended the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act to call for an additional destroyer.

The administration had only proposed one destroyer, down from two or three in prior years, and that ship would have likely been built by a competing shipyard. But a second destroyer would likely go to BIW.

BIW is one of the state’s largest employers and the DDG-51 is one of its signature ships. Maine’s delegation said the shipyard needs the assurance of additional contracts to maintain its current operations and staffing levels.

The administration’s shipbuilding proposal was first questioned by Republican Sen. Susan Collins at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last month.

Collins, who chairs the committee, told Hegseth that the administration’s proposal would create uncertainty at BIW.

“I’m particularly puzzled by the decision in reconciliation to request $1.8 billion for foreign-born surface combatants at the same time that there’s the proposed cut for American built destroyers,” Collins said last month.

Hegseth said that proposal was an interim step until the administration could invest $65 billion to increase U.S. shipbuilding capacity.

The proposal was also criticized by Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, last month.

The House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment sponsored by Golden to add an additional BIW destroyer and prevent the production of warships overseas.

“American military spending should support American jobs,” Golden said in a written statement earlier this month. “The idea that we would build any portion of our surface fleet on foreign soil with foreign labor is unconscionable.”