Title 10 › Subtitle Subtitle C— Navy and Marine Corps › Part IV— GENERAL ADMINISTRATION › Chapter 863— NAVAL VESSELS › § 8680
Naval ships based in the United States, Guam, or the Northern Mariana Islands must not be overhauled, repaired, or maintained in shipyards outside those places, except in specific situations. Littoral Combat Ships on deployment may get corrective or preventive repairs and routine shipboard upkeep in foreign shipyards or other nearby facilities if the work is done by U.S. government or U.S. contractor workers. Foreign workers can be used only if the Secretary of the Navy decides U.S. personnel should not travel for health or safety reasons, and the Secretary must notify the congressional defense committees within 30 days with reasons, the location, and how long the work will last. Facilities maintenance by a foreign contractor needs the Secretary’s approval. Short repairs done because of a voyage, battle damage, or planned corrective work that will take no more than 21 days can also be done abroad, but work done abroad for ships from any one homeport in a year may not exceed two percent of that homeport’s average annual workload over the prior three-year period. If a ship’s homeport is outside the United States, the Navy may not start any overhaul lasting more than six months during the 15 months before the ship is scheduled to move to a U.S. homeport. If a ship’s homeport is in the United States, the Navy must do any overhaul longer than six months that begins in the 15 months before a planned move to a foreign homeport inside the United States. The President picks the U.S., Australian, or U.K. shipyard for repairs of U.S. submarines tied to submarine security activities, and the President may allow work in Australia or the U.K. only under listed conditions; the Secretary of Defense must brief Congress within 15 days if an urgent threat requires using a foreign yard. The Secretary of the Navy must also send Congress, each year when the President’s budget is submitted under section 1105(a) of title 31, a report listing all covered vessels repaired abroad in the prior fiscal year and giving specified details, including the share of the Navy’s repair budget spent overseas. One-line definitions: Corrective and preventive maintenance or repair — fixing failures and scheduled work to prevent failures. Facilities maintenance — housekeeping, paint/coating upkeep, and cleaning of ship spaces.
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
Apr 18, 2026
Release point: 119-83