U.S. Navy Plans $3.5B Contract for 2,800 Small Boats Over 10 Years.

The U.S. Navy announced a $3.5 billion contract plan to buy 2,800 small boats over the next decade. The move aims to stabilize American shipyards, boost readiness, and expand competition among vendors.

The U.S. Navy confirmed on September 25, 2025, that it will advance a $3.5 billion Service Craft and Boats Multiple Award Contract spanning 10 years to procure approximately 2,800 small boats, targets, and service craft. The initiative introduces faster, parallel competitions across a wider vendor base to support U.S. boatyards and ensure greater operational readiness at the waterfront.
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The U.S. Navy is preparing a $3.5 billion multiple-award contract to procure 2,800 small boats, targets, and service craft over the next decade, strengthening harbor security, fleet support, and training while sustaining the U.S. small-craft industrial base (Picture source: U.S. DoW).

The RFI (Request For Information) sketches a wide portfolio spanning aluminum oil-spill response boats, Naval Special Warfare 8-meter and 11-meter surface support craft, force-protection boats, dive support craft and high-speed maneuvering surface targets, as well as steel workboats, tugs, barges, lighters and floating cranes. Notional quantities total 2,800 hulls across FY26 to FY36, with annual buys of skimmers, utility boats, targets, and service craft pacing fleet sustainment and training needs. Deliveries would concentrate at San Diego and Williamsburg stock points, with options to support FMS variants and familiarization packages.

Technical contours are unusually explicit for market research: docking, medium and large steel workboats are sized from about 25 to 40 feet with diesel inboards and heavy bollard pull, reflecting the priority on mooring evolutions and barrier operations inside Navy yards. The Navy pegs forward thrust at roughly 10,000 to 15,000 pounds, depending on variant, with integrated navigation, HVAC cabins, hoist and tow fittings, and low-speed control suitable for pushing and towing assignments that demand reliability over sprint speed.

On the aluminum side, oil-spill response units divide into a utility boat, boom platform and skimmer, all around 27 to 30 feet with twin gasoline outboards. The UB and BP are expected to cruise at 15 knots and sprint to 25, while the skimmer operates at 1.5 knots for recovery and 15 knots to reposition, and incorporates an integrated filter-belt system. The Navy also calls for 8-meter and 11-meter NSW support craft with D-shaped collars, twin outboards, and 35-knot class performance, configured as open-center or enclosed-cabin variants with shock-mitigating seats, dive ladders, tank stowage, and full electronic navigation suites. A U.S. Coast Guard SPC-LE II open-console variant is listed with triple outboards and a 45-knot top end, heavy machine-gun mounts and second-generation integrated navigation and comms.

Harbor tugs and small harbor tugs use azimuthing stern drives for tight-quarters control; open and covered lighters offer 500-ton deck capacity for general cargo; YON and YOS barges provide 7,000 to 14,000 barrel fuel or oil storage with diesel-driven pump houses. Larger assets like APL(S) barracks, barges and YRBM berthing and messing barges add hotel services at the pier, while AFDM and ARDM floating dry docks provide tens of thousands of long-tons of lifting capacity to keep submarines and surface ships on maintenance timelines.

Force-protection boats and SPC-LE II-style platforms provide quick-reaction perimeter security, interdiction and escort at Navy bases and in port approaches. NSW support craft furnishes the day-to-day transfer, swimmer and dive support that makes special operations training cycles possible. HSMST and HSMST-s targets, designed for remote unmanned control and sustained 30 to 40-plus-knot performance, give surface warfare crews realistic threat presentations and towing capacity for modular targets during live-fire events. Workboats and tugs enable frequent dry-dock evolutions and barrier handling without tying up larger fleet assets, while OSR boats deliver tiered environmental response to spills within naval stations and adjacent waterways.

Program officials describe a MAC with a 3.5-billion-dollar ceiling, a five-year base plus five option years, and rolling admissions to add awardees over time, paired with a nominal minimum guarantee to widen the vendor bench. Delivery orders will often be structured as base plus priced options so the Navy can place an initial unit and convert options as funds and operational demand firm up, while allowing prices to reflect current labor and material costs. It is an acquisition pivot meant to shorten lead times, broaden competition and stabilize throughput across small and midsize yards at a moment when the fleet’s shipyard work and Indo-Pacific operational tempo demand resilient pier-side support.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.