What is the FF(X) frigate and does Everett still have a shot at it? The FF(X) is the Navy’s replacement frigate class, unveiled by Secretary of the Navy John Phelan on December 19, 2025, after the Constellation-class program was cancelled. It will be based on HII’s Legend-class National Security Cutter design and built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi, with additional yards to be added through competition. The Navy has not announced homeports for the new class. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Everett) is lobbying Navy leadership to route the new frigates to Naval Station Everett, citing the same Pacific access that won Everett the original Constellation assignment in 2021.

What the Navy’s New FF(X) Frigate Means for Naval Station Everett

For four years, Naval Station Everett’s growth story was tied to one class of ship: the Constellation-class guided-missile frigate. Twelve of them were supposed to arrive between 2026 and 2028, bringing an estimated 2,900 sailors and civilian personnel with them and cementing Everett’s status as the Pacific Northwest’s frigate homeport.

That story ended on November 25, 2025, when Secretary of the Navy John Phelan announced the Constellation program’s cancellation. It was replaced on December 19 by a new story — one whose final chapter hasn’t been written yet, and whose setting is still up for grabs.

The New Frigate: FF(X), Based on a Coast Guard Cutter

In a video posted on social media on December 19, Phelan announced his direction for the program: “I have directed the acquisition of a new frigate class based on HII’s Legend-class national security cutter design, a proven American built ship that has been protecting us interests at home and abroad.”

The design choice matters. The Legend-class is the National Security Cutter, the Coast Guard’s largest surface asset — a 418-foot hull that HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding has been delivering on schedule for more than a decade. By starting from a mature, in-production American design rather than adapting a European parent hull, the Navy is betting it can avoid the design-instability problems that sank the Constellation.

The Constellation’s design problems were severe. It was originally intended to be about 85% common with the Italian FREMM frigate it was based on. By the time the Navy walked away from it, the final design had only about 15% commonality with the parent FREMM, had grown roughly 500 tons heavier than planned, and had pushed delivery of the lead ship from a 2026 target to April 2029 — a three-year slip that added more than $1 billion in costs.

The FF(X) aims for a ship in the water by 2028. Ingalls in Pascagoula, Mississippi will be the lead yard. The Navy has said it will run a competition to select additional yards, which keeps the door open for industrial base expansion elsewhere.

The Open Question for Everett

Neither the cancellation announcement nor the replacement announcement addressed homeports. Navy spokesman Capt. Ron Flanders told The Daily Herald that decisions on where the first two Constellation-class ships — FFG-62 Constellation and FFG-63 Congress, both still under construction at Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin — will be based “won’t be made until much closer to a ship’s commissioning date.”

The same silence applies to the new FF(X). No homeport has been announced. No assignment schedule has been published. For a station that spent four years preparing for a frigate-driven future, that silence is the central fact to navigate.

Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Everett), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, has moved quickly to make Everett’s case. Larsen has publicly described the station as “uniquely situated” for new frigates because of its direct access to the Pacific and its existing pier infrastructure, arguing the same rationale that won Everett the original Constellation homeport assignment in 2021 applies just as well to its replacement.

Why Everett Was Picked the First Time

The 2021 homeport decision was not arbitrary. The Navy’s 2024 Environmental Assessment on homeporting Constellation-class frigates at Naval Station Everett found no significant environmental impact and documented the station’s suitability in detail: deep-water piers already built to handle larger combatants, shore power capacity for modern ships, proximity to the open ocean without transit through restricted inland waters, and established training ranges in the Puget Sound operating area.

That infrastructure has not moved. The same physical and operational reasons that made Everett the logical choice for 12 Constellation-class frigates still apply to any new surface combatant the Navy wants to homeport in the Pacific Northwest. What has changed is the political geography around the decision, not the maritime geography.

The Local Response: Military Affairs Committee Rebooted

The community response was to get organized. In January 2026, the Economic Alliance Snohomish County — led by CEO Ray Stephanson — announced it was rebooting the Snohomish County Military Affairs Committee specifically to advocate for the station’s long-term future. The committee’s first meeting was held on February 23, 2026, with Snohomish County Council member Nate Nehring (R-Arlington) among the confirmed participants.

The committee’s role, as described in its charter, is to serve as “a coordinated regional voice that understands both the national security implications and the local economic impacts” of decisions affecting the station. In practice, that means:

• Resuming regular visits to the Pentagon to brief Navy leadership on Everett’s capabilities
• Tracking Navy contract opportunities so Snohomish County businesses can bid on them
• Coordinating with the Washington congressional delegation on authorization and appropriations language

Stephanson described the cancellation as undermining years of work to establish Everett as a key Navy asset, and framed the committee’s purpose as protecting the station’s relevance in future budget cycles.

What Current Operations Look Like

Amid all of this, the day-to-day mission at Naval Station Everett has not changed. The installation remains home to guided-missile destroyers — including USS Momsen, USS Shoup, USS Gridley, USS Kidd, and USS Sampson — along with USS Rafael Peralta and other Arleigh Burke-class ships, plus two Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers and two U.S. Coast Guard vessels.

The station continues to conduct routine operations and periodic training exercises, including the April 20–28, 2026 exercise in which community members observed blank-ammunition noise, temporary gate-access changes, and additional small-boat activity near the waterfront. The Navy emphasized that the exercise was routine and not in response to any specific threat.

The Fleet & Family Support Center continues to run its full program calendar, including the 2026 Career Transition Series that wrapped in March and the MWR Mountaineering Program that returned for 2026. For Navy families stationed in Everett right now, the frigate-class question is a long-horizon issue; the day-to-day quality-of-life infrastructure is intact.

The Economic Stakes

The cancelled Constellation homeporting plan carried concrete economic numbers. The 2024 environmental study estimated the 12-ship assignment would bring 2,900 sailors and civilian personnel to the Everett area while displacing roughly 3,100 existing personnel through reassignments elsewhere in the fleet.

Those numbers are now holding patterns, not commitments. Whether a similarly sized workforce arrives with the FF(X) — or with whatever combination of new-class surface combatants the Navy ultimately assigns to Everett — depends on homeport decisions that haven’t been made.

For the local economy, the waiting period is the hard part. Housing demand assumptions, school enrollment planning, and business investment decisions that were anchored to the 2026–2028 frigate arrival timeline have to be re-baselined. The Economic Alliance has told local stakeholders that the rebooted Military Affairs Committee is the single most important vehicle for keeping Everett in the running.

What to Watch

Three data points will tell the story as it develops:

• Where FFG-62 Constellation and FFG-63 Congress are homeported when they commission. If either is assigned to Everett, it signals the station is still in the Navy’s Pacific frigate rotation.
• The FF(X) competitive yard selection. Additional yards beyond Ingalls would broaden the industrial base and, potentially, strengthen the case for Pacific basing.
• The FY2027 and FY2028 shipbuilding appropriations. Homeport language sometimes appears in the committee report language accompanying defense authorization bills, even before formal Navy assignment.

None of those data points are available yet. Everett’s job between now and when they are is to make the case — as the Military Affairs Committee, Rep. Larsen, Sen. Patty Murray, and Sen. Maria Cantwell are all actively doing — that the Pacific Northwest’s only deep-water Navy installation belongs in the Navy’s long-term surface combatant plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened to the Constellation-class frigate program?
On November 25, 2025, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan announced the program’s cancellation. The first two ships — FFG-62 Constellation and FFG-63 Congress — will finish construction at Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin, but the next four planned ships were cancelled. Cost overruns exceeded $1 billion and delivery of the lead ship had slipped to April 2029.

What is the FF(X) frigate replacing it?
The FF(X) is a new frigate class based on HII’s Legend-class National Security Cutter, which is currently in service with the Coast Guard. It was announced by Secretary Phelan on December 19, 2025, with the stated goal of having a ship in the water by 2028. Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi will be the lead yard, and additional yards will be selected through competition.

Will the FF(X) be homeported at Naval Station Everett?
The Navy has not announced homeports for the new class. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Everett) is lobbying Navy leadership to route the new frigates to Everett, citing the same Pacific access and pier infrastructure that supported the original Constellation assignment.

What is the Snohomish County Military Affairs Committee?
It is a regional advocacy committee led by Ray Stephanson of Economic Alliance Snohomish County, rebooted in January 2026 after the Constellation cancellation. Its first meeting was February 23, 2026. The committee coordinates with elected officials, union leaders, and community groups to advocate for Naval Station Everett’s long-term future.

Is Naval Station Everett reducing operations?
No. The Navy has not announced any plans to reduce the station’s operational footprint. Current destroyers and cruisers continue to deploy and return, the Fleet & Family Support Center remains fully operational, and routine training exercises continue on schedule.

Who is the current commanding officer of Naval Station Everett?
Capt. Stacy Wuthier is the commanding officer. For official inquiries, the station’s Public Affairs Office is the point of contact; media questions about program or basing decisions go through Navy Region Northwest and the Pentagon.

Where can military families find resources in Everett?
The Fleet & Family Support Center at Naval Station Everett offers the full range of Navy family programs, and the installation’s MWR programs run year-round. The Snohomish County Veterans Assistance Program office at 3000 Rockefeller Avenue in Everett supports transitioning service members and veterans. The Everett Vet Center at 1010 SE Everett Mall Way, Suite 207 offers counseling services.