Trump's Battleship Revival: Will It Revolutionize the Navy or Drag It Under?
President Donald Trump's unveiling of a new "Trump-class" battleship fleet has thrust the spotlight back onto America's struggling naval shipbuilding efforts, which have repeatedly missed deadlines and blown budgets in recent years—a point Trump himself hammered home during his Monday speech at Mar-a-Lago. "We produce the absolute best equipment on the planet—nobody comes close. But we're not cranking them out fast enough," Trump declared, revealing plans to huddle with leading U.S. defense contractors to accelerate production on these battleships and other key military projects. Yet, the battleship initiative appears to face an uphill battle, especially regarding the ships' construction and the advanced weapon systems the Navy envisions integrating. Here's a closer look at what the proposed "Trump-class" battleships entail. The Vision According to a U.S. Navy fact sheet unveiled Monday, the Trump-class battleships are poised to become "the most lethal warships ever constructed."
Spanning up to 880 feet in length and displacing 30,000 to 40,000 tons, these vessels would mark the largest surface combatants built by the Navy since World War II.
By comparison, iconic WWII battleships like the USS Missouri—famous for hosting Japan's 1945 surrender—measured 887 feet long and displaced about 58,000 tons.
Today, the Navy's heftiest surface warships are the Zumwalt-class destroyers, which tip the scales at just 15,000 tons.
As designed, these ships boast "the most devastating firepower of any surface vessel ever to set sail—capable of hitting enemies at 80 times the range of prior classes," according to the Navy's dedicated website for the project.
The battleships would pack new nuclear-capable cruise missiles, fired from 12 onboard cells. These hypersonic weapons—traveling over five times the speed of sound—would be highly maneuverable to evade and outfox enemy defenses.
Additionally, the Trump-class would include 128 vertical launch cells versatile enough for subsonic Tomahawk cruise missiles, anti-ship munitions, or defensive interceptors.
Rounding out the arsenal: a cutting-edge railgun, five-inch conventional cannons, plus an array of lasers and secondary guns.
In total, Trump claimed, these vessels would be a staggering 100 times more potent than their WWII predecessors.
The Challenges: Constructing Them
The administration hasn't outlined any timeline for the design phase—where President Trump has vowed to take a hands-on role—or for constructing the initial pair of ships.
This ambitious battleship endeavor would fall under a naval shipyard that's been plagued by delivery failures in recent years, with Navy Secretary John Phelan bluntly describing it as chaotic.
"All our programs are in shambles," he testified at a U.S. House hearing in June. "Our top performer is six months delayed and 57% over budget... and that's the standout."
Just last month, Phelan scrapped the Constellation-class frigate initiative, which was running about three years late and aimed to produce far simpler, smaller vessels compared to the massive battleships Trump is now championing.
When it comes to intricate, large-scale ships, the Navy's latest aircraft carrier, the USS John F. Kennedy, is roughly two years past its original July delivery deadline this year. Officials blame the setbacks on unproven landing gear and weapons elevators that the service is still working to certify.
Then there's the looming issue of who would actually construct these massive battleships. U.S. shipyards are already maxed out, juggling ongoing construction, maintenance, and overhaul contracts. "We simply don't have the shipbuilding and maritime industrial backbone anymore to pull this off swiftly," noted analyst Carl Schuster, a retired U.S. Navy captain. Vessels on the scale of the Trump-class would demand dock space equivalent to that for hefty amphibious assault ships and logistics vessels the Navy desperately requires—meaning shuttered yards would need reactivation or entirely new facilities built from scratch, Schuster explained. And that's not even touching the labor crunch. "A massive, nationwide recruitment and training drive for shipyard workers, electricians, IT specialists, and sensor technicians would be essential to make this happen," Schuster added.