Bigger, faster, and 100x deadlier: Why the provocative plan for Trump’s battleship will sink

A few days ago, U.S. President Donald Trump, in his typical flamboyant style, announced a new class of "battleships" that will be called—you guessed it—"Trump battleships." "As Commander-in-Chief, it is a great honor for me to announce that I have approved a plan for the Navy to begin construction of two brand new, very large—the largest we have ever built—battleships," Trump announced from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida. "It will be the fastest, the largest, and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built," he declared.

The details

Initially, two ships will be constructed, the first of which will be named USS Defiant (BBG-1), with a target completion date in the mid-2030s. The American President mentioned that the Navy eventually wants to have 20-25 ships in the "Golden Fleet." The dimensions, characteristics, and weapon systems of the vessel are truly ambitious and extraordinary. However, experts doubt whether the ship will ever be launched. For starters, battleships have been obsolete for decades. The weapon systems the ship is intended to carry are still under development. Its price tag will be equal to that of aircraft carriers. Its sheer size will make it vulnerable—a "bomb magnet."

What is known so far

According to the U.S. Navy, the USS Defiant will belong to a new class of large surface combatants with the greatest destructive firepower of any surface ship to ever sail, capable of striking an opponent at a distance 100 times greater than the previous class. "The Trump battleship will be the first guided battleship with the capability to be deployed with nuclear and hypersonic missiles." The ship will have a length of 840-880 feet, triple the size of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. It will have a displacement of 35,000 tons or more, double that of the U.S. Navy's current largest surface vessels, the Zumwalt-class destroyers (15,000 tons). It will have a crew of 650-850 people. Its massive size will provide excessive firepower, larger missile bays, and the ability to launch Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic missiles and Surface Launch Cruise Missile-Nuclear.

Weapon systems

Regarding weapon systems, the battleship will be equipped with a 32 MJ Railgun with Hypervelocity Projectile (HVP), Surface Launch Cruise Missile-Nuclear (SLCM-N), 128 Mk41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) cells, two 300 kW or two 600 kW lasers, four 30mm guns, two anti-UxS systems, 12 CPS hypersonic missile cells, and two RAM launchers. These weapon systems would indeed give the ship formidable firepower. However, experts are divided on whether such a ship can actually be built. Primarily, this is because battleships have been obsolete for decades.

Battleships are obsolete

The era of battleships ended more than half a century ago. Once symbols of naval power, battleships became outdated during the Second World War. Bernard Loo, a senior researcher at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore, described the proposal as "a prestige project more than anything else." He cited the example of Japan’s super-battleships, Yamato and Musashi, the largest ever built, which were sunk by carrier-based aircraft before they could play any significant role in the war. In the following decade, aircraft carriers and cruisers with long-range missiles completely eclipsed battleships. However, given that the USS Defiant will be equipped with railguns, cruise missiles, nuclear and hypersonic missiles, as well as laser weapons, it would be classified as a "cruiser" rather than a battleship. Therefore, calling it a battleship is a misnomer.

A "bomb magnet"

At 880 feet long, the Trump battleship will be triple the size of an Arleigh Burke destroyer. It will have a displacement of 35,000 tons or more, double that of the U.S. Navy's largest surface vessels, the Zumwalt-class (15,000 tons). While this large size allows the ship to carry more weapons, it also makes it more vulnerable to attack, particularly in the age of drones, sea drones, and anti-ship hypersonic missiles. Bernard Loo stated that its size would make it a "bomb magnet." "The size and prestige value make it an even more attractive target, possibly for your adversary," Loo said. Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), stated that the new ship would go against the U.S. Navy's new philosophy of distributed lethality, which seeks to reduce vulnerability by spreading resources across many units. "The Navy is moving toward a model of distributed operations, in which fleet resources are spread out and networked, maximizing lethality through coordination of various sensors and launchers. This proposal would move in the opposite direction, building a few large, expensive, and potentially vulnerable assets," he wrote.

Cost equivalent to aircraft carriers

Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, estimates that the cost of the Trump-class ship will be two to three times higher than that of current destroyers, such as the Arleigh Burke class, which cost approximately $2.7 billion each. This means a Trump-class ship could cost over $8 billion. "At the very least, as far as I am concerned, it is strategic hubris," stated Loo from RSIS. He also pointed out that U.S. weapon systems typically exceed schedules and budgeted amounts. For example, the U.S. Navy originally ordered 32 Zumwalt destroyers. However, this number was reduced to just three ships due to the skyrocketing price. Cancian from CSIS mentioned that, with the 30,000-40,000 ton displacement cited by the President, the ship is much larger than anything built by the U.S. in the last 80 years, except for aircraft carriers. The U.S. Navy has stated that construction of the first two Trump-class ships is not expected to begin before the early 2030s. However, given the many contradictions in the plan and its philosophy, it is very likely that a future administration will cancel the entire program.

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