How big and powerful will Trump’s new ‘Trump-class battleship’ be?
The U.S.Navy will get two new battleships, the “largest we’ve ever built” sometime in the 2030s, President Donald Trump announced Dec.22.
Construction of the ships, designated Trump-class battleships, is scheduled to begin in the early 2030s, according to the Department of Defense.Trump said the vessels will be part of a new “golden fleet” of advanced warships.
Trump said 20 to 25 of the battleships will be built.Work on the first two ships would begin immediately, he said.
Navy Secretary John Phelan compared the new battleships to the World War II-era Iowa-class battleships, a key part of the Navy fleet from the 1940s to the early 1990s.
However, the first Trump-class battleship, to be known as the USS Defiant, “will be the largest, deadliest and most versatile and best-looking warship anywhere on the world’s oceans,” Phelan said.
How does Trump-class battleship compare to others?
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The Navy will lead the ship design, “along with me, because I’m a very aesthetic person,” Trump said during the unveiling at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
What type of weapons will Trump-class battleship have?
Ship weaponry would include cruise missiles, 30mm guns, ODIN lasers, and nuclear weapons, Trump said.Artificial intelligence would also play a “big factor” in the ships’ capabilities, USA TODAY reported.
Trump said the new battleships are intended to be built in the U.S.by American citizens.
“The construction will create thousands of American jobs.We’re going to have the jobs be created,” he said.
The cost of building a single Trump-class battleship in an American shipyard could range from $10 billion to $15 billion, reported USNI News.That’s based on the ship’s size and the systems included.
The Navy has experienced some difficulty with some of the weapons systems planned for the battleship, NPR reported.It abandoned the railgun project in 2021.Laser technology is used on ships, but is in limited deployment.
While Trump says as many as two dozen Trump-class battleships could be built, the Navy had four Iowa-class ships constructed.
Two others were scrapped.
The Iowa-class ships replaced two older types of battleships, the North Carolina- and South Dakota-class ships.
CONTRIBUTING Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA TODAY
SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Reuters; U.S.Naval Institute; Department of Defense; Military Times; Breaking Defense; Naval History and Heritage Command; seapowermagazine.org.
