More than 90 percent of global trade moves by sea. Energy resources, raw materials, semiconductors and critical minerals all depend on secure maritime shipping lanes. Nations that command the seas command the global economy, and those that command the global economy ultimately shape the international order. Against this backdrop, the Korea-U.S. alliance is entering a new phase, evolving beyond a traditional land-based security partnership into a broader maritime alliance. Although the United States possesses the world's most powerful navy, the competitiveness of its shipbuilding industry has declined significantly. Since the end of the Cold War, the number of U.S. shipyards and skilled workers has steadily decreased, limiting shipbuilding capacity and slowing naval expansion. Even the U.S. Navy's maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) capability has become insufficient to fully support the Indo-Pacific strategy. This decline is partly the result of decades of protectionist maritime policies, including the Jones Act and the Byrnes-Tollefson Amendment, which gradually eroded America's i