Abstract: Additive manufacturing technology has great development prospects in the field of ship equipment manufacturing. The lightweight and low-loss manufacturing mode greatly improves energy and material utilization. However, due to the metallurgical characteristics of aluminum alloys and the additive manufacturing process, the aluminum alloy components are prone to metallurgical defects such as porosity and cracking in the additive manufacturing process, which seriously affects the quality, safety and reliability of ship equipment. In this study, we summarize the research status and progress of three main additive manufacturing processes (wire arc additive manufacturing, selective laser melting and additive friction stir-deposition) of ship aluminum alloys and the metallurgical defect control, and look forward to the future research direction of the additive manufacturing technology of ship aluminum alloys, so as to provide reference for the development of the additive manufacturing technology and defect control of ship aluminum alloy components.