The U.S. shipbuilding industry is in dire straits. We are struggling to build even one submarine a year, and we are wasting money planning hypothetical warships (such as the Trump “Battleship”) that never make it out of development.

On the other hand, America’s adversaries are building their fleets with whatever they’ve got. China repurposes its fishing vessels and tankers into a maritime “militia” capable of being used in a potential blockade against Taiwan. Iran repurposes cargo ships into cheap drone carriers. Sure, they are not high quality ships. But at this rate, our adversaries will have more ships than the number of missiles in our stockpiles (which are running alarmingly low from the Iran conflict).

The American military likes to think of itself as professional, elite, technologically superior and precise. Those qualities are important. But in an age where a few cheap drone strikes can disable a warship (see what Ukraine is doing to Russia’s navy), we should not put too much stock in a few expensive, fancy weapons. There is no shame in turning to scrapyards to expand the size of our navy. A dozen scrappy, cheap warships are better than one advanced frigate with rail-guns and high-tech systems that never leaves the blueprint stage.