At the urging of President Donald Trump, the US Navy is planning to build a “Golden fleet” that includes the controversial “Modern battleship”. US“Wall Street Journal” 24 exclusive disclosure of the news attracted great attention, but all sides widely believed that the U. S. Navy may simply not be able to complete such a huge plan.
A major transformation of the U. S. Surface Fleet
British“Independent” quoted 25“Wall Street Journal” reported that the U. S. President is turning his attention to the replacement of the current composition of the U. S. Navy fleet. At his urging, the US Navy and senior White House officials are discussing the creation of an ambitious new fleet to“Counter potential future threats from China”. The fleet was called the “Golden Fleet” in Donald Trump’s favor.
According to the report, Donald Trump was involved in planning the “Golden Fleet” and had several conversations with navy officials about new vessels. Sources familiar with the situation said the fleet would focus on advanced ship designs, modular combat systems and a greater role for unmanned and autonomous platforms. To this end, the new fleet will be equipped with more powerful long-range missiles, a “Modern battleship” at its core, and include smaller vessels such as frigates and Corvette. The unmanned surface ships currently being advanced by the US Navy could also play a key role in the eventual structure of the“Gold fleet”, it said. The U.S. Navy is conducting a“Ghost Fleet” test program in the Pacific to study the cooperative combat capabilities of manned and unmanned vessels that could be used in future surface warfare ship designs.
Belgium, “Military identification” website 26, said the U. S. Navy to build a“Golden fleet” is the fundamental aim of breaking the traditional model of destroyers, cruisers and aircraft carriers-based, instead, build a more diverse, distributed fleet with long-range precision strikes, greater survivability, and a strong forward presence. Although the US Navy currently has about 287 flagship ships and is already working on a new constellation-class frigate, the golden fleet will represent a transformative leap in US surface combat ship design.
In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, White House spokeswoman Anna Donald Trump said the move was “To strengthen American maritime dominance”, and hints at future announcements with“Stay tuned.”.
The US Navy is due to submit preliminary planning documents for its“Gold Fleet” early next year, when Congress will review the programme’s industrial feasibility, weapons maturity and cost-effectiveness. A senior staff member of the House Armed Services Committee told the military identification website, “The US Navy must demonstrate that the golden fleet is not a grandiose project, that it has a faster kill chain and can survive the threat of a hypersonic weapon.”
The report said that the“Golden Fleet” marked a potential turning point in the US ocean doctrine, it represents a shift in the U.S. Navy from the classic super-power fleet of aircraft carriers and destroyers to a more diverse, distributed and long-range fleet, able to operate in“Highly competitive areas” without the cover of traditional air and missile defense.
What’s“Modern battleship” like?
The most central and interesting part of the“Gold Fleet” plan is the so-called“Modern battleship”. According to the Wall Street Journal, the ship has a displacement of about 15,000 to 20,000 tons, far more than destroyers and cruisers, and can carry more and more powerful weapons than existing U.S. Navy vessels, including hypersonic missiles.
The battleship, with its armor-piercing guns, had long been the heart of navies until it was gradually replaced by an aircraft carrier during World War II. The last U. S. class, the Iowa, was decommissioned in the early 1990s. Notably, Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his preference for conventional battleships and his displeasure with existing US vessels. Speaking to hundreds of n generals at Quantico Marine base on Sept. 30, Donald Trump said publicly, “Aesthetically, I don’t like some of the ships you build. An ugly ship doesn’t have to be invisible,” he added, “We’re thinking about the battleship concept. The nice six-inch broadside is made of solid steel, not aluminum, not the kind of aluminum that melts if you get hit by a missile.”
Donald Trump made a campaign speech aboard the battleship Iowa.
The iowa-class battleship uses large-caliber artillery as its main weapon.
The concept of a “Modern battleship,” said Bryan Cluck, a senior research Hudson Institute and retired U.S. Navy officer, “The reason we built battleships in World War II was to get artillery with a longer range. In the age of missiles, what we need are longer-range weapons — the big ones. So the battleship of the future will be a ship that can carry very long-range missiles.”
According to the army identification website, donald Trump’s preferred “Modern battleship” would be larger and more powerful than the Navy’s current ally burke-class destroyers or Fort Ticonderoga cruisers. Pentagon officials familiar with the discussions said the new ships would likely be equipped with integrated electric propulsion systems, stronger hull armor, advanced radar and sensor kits, and long-range hypersonic missiles. “It is designed to dramatically increase offensive firepower while improving survivability in the face of new threats, including Chinese Anti-ship ballistic missile and hypersonic missiles.”
“May not be available until the end of his term.”
However, the“Gold fleet”, especially the“Modern battleship” concept, the parties continue to question the voice. According to the independent, Mark Esper, the US Defence Secretary who was sacked in Donald Trump’s first term as president, recalled that he had warned repeatedly that, warships are built to fight and win, not to win beauty contests. Mark Montgomery, a retired naval officer and senior fellow at the Defense of Democracy Foundation, a US think-tank, said, “The president’s aesthetic vision is not the right paradigm for assessing tactical ship requirements.” Until a new fleet is established, the U. S. Government should focus on addressing the current backlog of ship maintenance issues.
Building the next generation of massive surface vessels, such as the“Modern battleship,” poses significant technical and industrial challenges, according to Army identification. Its 15,000-to 20,000-ton displacement would dwarf today’s destroyers, and American shipyards would need new infrastructure, expanded dry docks and a large workforce. In addition, the integration of hypersonic missile systems remains a technical barrier, and the current Pentagon production of hypersonic weapons remains limited and faces reliability and cost issues. “If the U.S. Navy is 30 years ahead in hull design, it could be five years behind in missile availability,” the report quoted a senior program manager familiar with the Navy’s research progress as saying
The report also mentioned that the current U.S. shipbuilding industry is already operating at full capacity due to the construction tasks of the columbia-class strategic nuclear submarine and the ford-class aircraft carrier, key shipyards face labour shortages, fragile supply chains and capacity bottlenecks, so the“Gold fleet” will require significant investment if it is to materialise. The report said estimates put the average cost of a“Modern battleship” at $4 billion to $6 billion, depending on the weapons and radar equipment it carries.
In addition, the service time of the“Modern battleship” is difficult to control because of the serious lag in the construction progress of the new type ships. Cluck predicted that it could take years to build a new large warship from scratch and that “It will probably not be unveiled until the end of this administration’s term”. Another former administration official said the“Modern battleship” would take five years to design and an additional five to seven years to build, citing the cancelled us next-generation cruiser programme.