Title 10 › Subtitle C — Navy and Marine Corps › PART IV — GENERAL ADMINISTRATION › CHAPTER 863 — NAVAL VESSELS › § 8680
Ships based in the United States, Guam, or the Northern Mariana Islands must be overhauled, repaired, or maintained only in U.S., Guam, or Northern Mariana shipyards. There are a few limited exceptions. Littoral Combat Ships on deployment can get corrective or preventive repairs and facilities upkeep in foreign yards or other nearby places, but U.S. government or U.S. contractor workers must do the work unless the Secretary of the Navy says U.S. workers should not travel for health or safety reasons. That health or safety decision cannot be passed to someone else and must be reported to the congressional defense committees within 30 days with the reasons, the location, and how long the work will last. Foreign contractors can do facilities maintenance only with the Secretary’s approval. Corrective and preventive maintenance means fixing failures and scheduled upkeep to avoid failures. Facilities maintenance means housekeeping, coating work, and cleaning of mechanical and topside spaces. Other exceptions let ships be repaired abroad for voyage repairs, damage from hostile action, or planned corrective work that will last no more than 21 days. Work under that rule at any one homeport in a fiscal year cannot exceed 2% of that homeport’s average annual shipyard workload over the prior three years (measured in shipyard labor hours). If a ship will move its homeport, rules restrict long repairs: a ship moving into a U.S. homeport cannot start any work lasting more than six months during the 15 months before the move, and a ship leaving a U.S. homeport must have any work over six months that starts in the 15 months before the move done inside the United States. For U.S., Australian, and U.K. submarine security activities, the President picks the shipyard in the U.S., Australia, or the U.K.; repairs in Australia or the U.K. are allowed only in certain cases and the Secretary of Defense must brief Congress within 15 days if a fast threat requires using those foreign yards. Each year with the President’s budget, the Secretary of the Navy must report all repairs done in foreign shipyards the prior fiscal year and give budget percentages and specific details about each covered vessel and its repairs (with limited exceptions for certain contract-operated vessels).
Full Legal Text
Armed Forces, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
10 U.S.C. § 8680
Title 10, Armed Forces
Last Updated
Sep 22, 2026
Release point: 119-110