A Navy Directive
To reiterate an early 2025 mandate from President Donald Trump to Navy Secretary John Phelan: “Shipbuilding, shipbuilding, shipbuilding. Get those ships out of maintenance yards. Fix the damn rust.”
Since that directive, there has been a grand – though somewhat haphazard – push to overhaul Navy maintenance and operations that in 2026 witnessed a Navy Secretary turnover. Yet the initiatives like the “Golden Fleet,” the ShipOS program with Palantir, and the “Right to Repair” reform remain active today, pumped by the defense spending surge.
Of the $1.5 trillion defense budget proposed for 2027, $377.5 billion would go to the Navy as it exhibits a “commitment to the Golden Fleet initiative, modernization and readiness.” Narrowing down, nearly 40% of that – at $150 billion – are shared costs for operations and maintenance, which includes day-to-day upkeep and sustainment of the surface and submarine fleet. Further zeroing in, $44.3 billion would be allocated to ship maintenance, facilities MRO, and fleet readiness.
To get the most out of this massive capital injection, the Navy is moving away from archaic, labor-intensive maintenance methods. Instead, to satisfy the mandate to “fix the damn rust,” the service is turning to advanced industrial technology to win the war on corrosion and empowering sailors to handle maintenance on the fly.
Enter high-power laser cleaning systems – an efficient alternative to traditional rust removal techniques.
Laser Power ‘Promising’ in Fleet Maintenance
Laser ablation has already gained some popularity in the commercial sector, but federal entities have been slow in shifting from testing to widespread adoption. A June 2025 NAVSEA report called the technology “promising” after testing at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF); in a more recent report, ships docked at the Norfolk Naval Station applied laser ablation alongside plasma blasting, brought in by the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS).
The Navy’s immediate goal is to replace high-noise, vibration-heavy, labor-intensive legacy surface prep tools. These can be needle guns, wire wheels, abrasive blasting, and scraping. In confined spaces below deck, they present too many issues and require too many auxiliary procedures to be called effective. Testing has shown that while a needle gun requires hearing protection up to 95 feet away, a laser ablation tool only requires it within 5 feet, significantly reducing operator strain.
Beyond ergonomics, laser ablation introduces a shift in environmental sustainability. Laser cleaning is consumable-free and waste-free, generating minimal secondary waste in the form of dust to be collected by HEPA vacuum systems. This stands at stark difference from methods that require abrasive media, their storage prior to, containment during, and disposal after processing. Laser ablation reduces both the Navy’s environmental liabilities and the cleanup cycles that bottleneck shipyard maintenance.
Precautions & Limitations
PPE is required with either cleaning method. However, the nature of the hazard shifts completely from mechanical to optical. Traditional abrasive blasting requires heavy-duty respirators and suits to protect operators from high-velocity grit and ricocheting debris. Laser cleaning tools, on the other hand, mandate wavelength-specific laser safety eyewear to prevent irreversible eye damage from diffuse reflections. Furthermore, because the laser beam can pose a hazard at a distance, shipyards must implement safety measures such as temporary light-tight barriers or close off laser areas to isolate the work zone and protect adjacent crews from accidental exposure.
To note other limitations, laser cleaning is unsuited for rainy or highly humid environments. Standing water or moisture on a ship’s hull scatters the laser beam and absorbs its energy, creating a steam blanket that kills removal efficiency and risks damaging the optics. In addition, a laser beam requires an unobstructed line-of-sight to the target. While systems like the DefenseTech laser cleaners feature highly maneuverable, ergonomic guns designed for hard-to-reach areas, effective ablation remains limited to surfaces positioned at a relatively perpendicular angle to the optics.
Nevertheless, these limitations simply define the operational boundaries of where to best deploy the technology. High-power DefenseTech laser ablation machines have already been tested at drydocks and open hangar bays, proving highly effective for large-scale structural stripping of bulkheads, decks, compartments, and foundations. When paired alongside complementary tech like plasma blasting, the systems provide the Navy with a versatile, hybrid maintenance arsenal. As the service maneuvers through leadership transitions and deploys its massive 2027 maintenance budgets, the integration of these industrial tools represents a critical tactical shift toward resolving the persistent shipyard bottlenecks and meeting the fleet’s strict mandates for immediate readiness.
Fonon a Validated Provider of Laser Cleaning Tools
Fonon Technologies has demonstrated successful validation of its laser cleaning products. Operating alongside Florida-based manufacturer Laser Photonics, Fonon acts as the dedicated government and defense procurement arm for advanced laser-powered systems. Through their specialized DefenseTech line, the companies supply the TAA-compliant, high-power laser ablation tools currently being evaluated and deployed across federal logistics networks. As the Navy pushes to decentralize its corrosion control and meet strict turnaround deadlines, this dual manufacturing and procurement pipeline offers a direct avenue for getting non-contact surface prep tools out of prolonged testing phases and straight onto the deck plates.
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