The New Federation of American Shipyards

Overview

The Department of the Navy is shifting to a distributed/federated shipbuilding model, targeting an increase in work performed at distributed sites from roughly 10% to 50%. This policy moves submarine and surface ship module production away from traditional prime yards such as HII and General Dynamics toward smaller yards including Austal, Eastern Shipbuilding, and Rhoads. The initiative includes significant government investment, for example a $450 million Navy-funded facility at Austal, and is intended to reshape the industrial base and create new contracting opportunities for non-traditional naval shipbuilders. For existing primes and their subcontractors this change may alter workflows, subcontracting relationships, and program capture strategies. Contractors should act now to position for new task orders and IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity) opportunities, to align supply chains with distributed manufacturing, and to shore up compliance where DFARS (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement), ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations), CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification), NIST 800-171 (NIST Special Publication 800-171), Buy American Act, and the Berry Amendment may apply. Immediate preparedness will reduce capture time and increase competitiveness as the Navy releases follow-on guidance and solicitations.

Immediate Actions (This Week)

• [ ] Inventory current capabilities for modular shipbuilding and identify the top 3 capability gaps to close for distributed/federated module production.
• [ ] Map your supply chain and subcontractor relationships to identify single points of failure and potential small-yard partners (including non-traditional yards) for teaming.
• [ ] Begin active monitoring of Navy and Naval Sea Systems Command announcements and solicitations; set up alerts to capture follow-on guidance and IDIQ/task-order postings.
• [ ] Brief executive leadership and legal/contracts teams on potential program and industrial-base impacts; create a short capture team to track this initiative.
• [ ] Review the compliance regimes cited for this event (DFARS, ITAR, CMMC, NIST 800-171, Buy American Act, Berry Amendment) and flag immediate remediation tasks and owners.

Short-Term Actions (30 Days)

• [ ] Develop teaming and partnership outreach to small yards and non-traditional shipbuilders; request capability briefings and exchange technical data where permitted.
• [ ] Produce a modular manufacturing capability statement, one-page technical whitepaper, and a concise cost/lead-time model to support rapid capture responses.
• [ ] Run a targeted risk assessment for supply-chain, export-control, and domestic sourcing requirements tied to naval modules; identify priority mitigation steps.
• [ ] Align capture priorities and opportunity pipeline with IDIQ shipbuilding contract types and service procurements once solicitations are published.

Long-Term Actions (90+ Days)

• [ ] Execute capacity expansion or technology investments informed by the capability gaps identified in the Immediate Actions phase (scale, tooling, workforce).
• [ ] Prepare configurable proposal templates and a compliance documentation package for rapid response to task orders and IDIQ solicitations.
• [ ] Implement or strengthen supplier vetting and flow-down contract language to ensure compliance with DFARS/ITAR/CMMC/NIST domestic sourcing requirements where applicable.
• [ ] Establish or formalize long-term teaming agreements and joint-capture plans with small yards and primes to pursue distributed module work.

Compliance Checklist

• [ ] DFARS — review applicability to your organization and contracts; assign owner to track DFARS-related clauses and flow-downs.
• [ ] ITAR — evaluate export control obligations for technical data and hardware related to ship modules; identify licensing needs.
• [ ] CMMC — assess maturity level expectations and plan remediation steps where required by Navy solicitations.
• [ ] NIST 800-171 — confirm CUI (Controlled Unclassified Information) controls and remediation status for systems that handle controlled technical information.
• [ ] Buy American Act — validate domestic sourcing compliance for component procurement as required.
• [ ] Berry Amendment — confirm supply-chain restrictions for applicable textile/defense items if relevant to your scope.

Resources

• Department of the Navy — monitor official releases and implementation guidance from the Department of the Navy and Naval Sea Systems Command for program details and solicitation timelines.
• Regulation texts to review (locate official source documents for full text): DFARS; ITAR; CMMC; NIST 800-171; Buy American Act; Berry Amendment.
• Internal Cabrillo guidance:
• Secure Operations Guide (/insights/secure-operations-guide)
• CMMC Compliance Guide (/insights/cmmc-compliance-guide)
• CUI-Safe CRM Guide (/insights/cui-safe-crm-guide)

How Cabrillo Club Automates This

Cabrillo Signals War Room — Already detected this event and delivered this briefing within minutes. War Room continuously monitors Department of the Navy, Naval Sea Systems Command, and other federal sources for regulatory changes, contract vehicle updates, and policy shifts. It will push real-time alerts and summaries as the Navy publishes follow-on guidance, investment announcements, or solicitation notices so your capture team never misses a development.

Cabrillo Signals Match Engine — When the distributed/federated shipbuilding initiative changes the competitive landscape, the Match Engine automatically rescales your opportunity pipeline: it updates match scores, keyword relevance, and agency alignment so that IDIQ shipbuilding opportunities and related solicitations bubble to the top of your queue. Use the reprioritized pipeline to focus capture resources on the highest-probability task orders.

Cabrillo Signals Intelligence Hub — The Intelligence Hub tracks the event’s affected agencies, NAICS profiles, and contract vehicles and lets you create saved searches and alerts. Configure saved searches to watch Department of the Navy and Naval Sea Systems Command releases, and to notify you when IDIQ shipbuilding contract task orders or related solicitations matching this event’s profile are published.

Proposal Studio (Proposal OS) — Proposal Studio automates the creation of compliance matrices, win-theme libraries, and first-draft technical approaches tailored to distributed module work using your past performance and capability data. The bid/no-bid decision engine incorporates event-driven signals so capture leaders get a data-driven recommendation quickly.

Proposal Studio Workflow Tracker — The Workflow Tracker provides a 9-gate capture management workflow from opportunity identification through post-submission. It will automatically route compliance reviews to contracts and legal, track supplier certifications and flow-downs, and generate audit-ready proposal and compliance packages for rapid submission to IDIQ/task-order solicitations.

Explore these features to accelerate capture and compliance readiness for the Navy’s distributed shipbuilding initiative and consult the Secure Operations Guide (/insights/secure-operations-guide) and related Cabrillo guides for step-by-step implementation.