On the 22nd, U.S. President Trump announced that the U.S. Navy will build two new “Trump” class battleships, which will be the “largest, fastest battleships” in the United States, with combat power “100 times stronger” than existing vessels, and will become an important component of the U.S. Navy‘s new generation of “Golden Fleet.” Trump introduced that the battleships will be “the largest battleships ever built in U.S. history,” equipped with supersonic weapons, orbital cannons, cruise missiles, and laser weapons. However, the Associated Press said that the above weapons deployment technology is still in the research and development stage. In addition, Trump also announced plans to launch the construction of a new generation of aircraft carriers, but did not disclose more details. According to the U.S. “Political News Network”, the current Pentagon budget does not allocate funds for new battleships and aircraft carriers, and the launch time and implementation method of related work are not yet clear.
Trump walked past the “Trump” class battleship design effect poster on 22nd. (AP)
U.S. “Urgent Need for New Ships”
Trump attended a press conference with Secretary of Defense Hegeseth, Secretary of State Rubio, and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan at Sea Lake Manor, Florida, on the 22nd, to announce the navy‘s latest shipbuilding plan. Trump said he had approved a plan by the navy to begin building two “Trump” class battleships, followed by eight more soon, eventually expanding to 20 to 25, with a construction period estimated to be two and a half years. He emphasized that these battleships will be built on-shore, and the related works will create thousands of jobs. As he announced this news, Trump was also flanked by several design-effect posters of new types of battleships.
“Designs for new battleships have been brewing for a long time. It started during my first term, when I asked why we weren’t building the old kind of battleships anymore.” Trump explained that the United States “needs new ships urgently” because some of the current battleships are “old and out of date.” The Wall Street Journal said that the name “battleships” can easily be associated with traditional ships equipped with large-caliber artillery in the past, but the planned new battleships will adopt a completely new design. Trump also said he will personally participate in the design of battleships, saying that each ship will have a water output of between 30,000 and 40,000 tons, “and will be controlled by artificial intelligence.”
Phelan described the “Trump” class battleship as an upgraded version of World War II‘s “Iowa” class battleship and called it a “generational investment.” He added that the series would be the “largest, most destructive, most versatile, and most outstanding-looking” battleship in the world‘s oceans. Heggseth said that this announcement of building a “golden fleet” centered on new types of battleship marks a generational commitment by the U.S. military to consolidate U.S. maritime power.
The U.S. Department of Defense issued a statement on the 22nd saying that “Trump-class” battleships are currently in the design stage and the first one is planned to be built in the early 2030s. Trump was also reported to have said on the 22nd that “we are currently building 3 large aircraft carriers” and will build 12 to 15 brand-new submarines.
Make the President Feel “Cool Enough”
The BBC said that the shipbuilding plan announced this time is a core move by the Trump administration to expand the size of the U.S. Navy and build a “Golden Fleet.” According to the Wall Street Journal, early this year, the White House and the Navy jointly formed a team to begin planning a brand-new naval fleet. The Navy proposed naming this fleet the “Golden Fleet,” a name that continues the style of similar projects during the Trump administration, such as shortly after his return to the White House, he ordered the military to develop the “Golden Dome” sky-based missile defense system.
According to the plan, the “Golden Fleet” will consist of several large battleships equipped with high-powered long-range missiles and a greater number of small frigates. Among them, the new frigates will be built based on the Coast Guard‘s “Legendary” class national security patrol ship. The Associated Press said that a month ago, the U.S. Navy canceled the construction plan for the new small battleships due to delays in construction and increasingly severe cost overspending problems, instead choosing to build the improved version of the Coast Guard patrol ship that had been in production previously.
The Wall Street Journal also noted that for years, Trump had advocated for the reform of the U.S. naval fleet, criticizing current warships for their “ugly appearance” and rust stains. During his first term in office, Trump called for the restoration of Steam catapults for launching aircraft carriers and was dissatisfied with the aesthetic design of U.S. Navy destroyers. Phelan recently revealed in a media interview that Trump explicitly demanded that the “Golden Fleet” must include a battleship that is “magnificent in form and striking in appearance.” He said that in addition to the main warships, the “Golden Fleet” will also be equipped with dozens of supply transport vessels.
Regarding the “Golden Fleet” project, former admiral Mark Montgomery, an expert at the U.S. think tank Defense Democracy Foundation, said that each new type of battleship was expensive to build and expensive to maintain, while the navy‘s newly launched frigates lacked relevant systems and “had no tactical value at all.” He said that the focus of R&D on these ships was not on practical combat capabilities at all, but to make the president think that battleships looked “cool enough” on the outside.
“Put a name tag” on the US Navy
Although the U.S. government hopes to boost the declining U.S. shipbuilding industry through the new battleship project, people in the defense industry say this project is “unpractical.” Two people familiar with the situation told the “Political News Network” that given that the new type of battleship has not even been finalized in engineering design plans yet, it is almost impossible to achieve delivery “in two and a half years.” For a long time, the U.S. Navy has struggled to complete shipbuilding missions on time and budget, and the construction dates of all naval vessels currently under construction are delayed by at least one year. U.S. shipyards have faced hiring difficulties and retaining difficulties for years, unable to guarantee the personnel allocation of the production line, and Trump and Phelan did not mention how to solve these problems in their press conference on the 22nd.
According to Bryan Clark, an expert at the U.S. Hudson Institute, the U.S. Navy hopes to build new shipyards to speed up shipbuilding, but it is estimated that it will take 10 years for the new shipyards to deliver similar new types of battleships. There are also analyses that if built at a U.S. mainland shipyard, the cost of a single battleship is estimated to be at least $ 10 billion. Defense industry analyst Schweitzer said: “We think this plan is extremely ambitious and in some ways runs counter to the Navy‘s prior claim to focus on developing unmanned and autonomous maritime warfare systems.”
“The plans to build new battleships are likely to cause intense controversy.” CNN said that it is not common for presidents to name things after themselves. Previous presidents generally waited humbly for historical judgment and national recognition of their achievements, taking the example of aircraft carriers named after John F. Kennedy and Gerald Ford, both of whom began construction many years after their deaths. The New York Times said that crowning new battleships with his surname continued Trump‘s usual style of imprinting his personal brand on multiple areas of the federal government, and now he seems prepared to “sign his name” to the U.S. Navy.
CNN criticized that this “naming carnival” also has considerable political risks for Trump: at the moment, millions of Americans struggle with high food, housing, and medical costs, and critics can easily take the opportunity to accuse Trump of only caring about his personal interests and being indifferent to the suffering of the people.