Wraps come off new Trump-class battleship design

Image: U.S/ Navy

The last new Navy ship design announced was for a frigate. Yesterday, something considerably larger was unveiled: a new class of American-designed battleships —the Trump class — that, says the administration, will be the most lethal surface combatant ever constructed.

“As commander in chief, it’s my great honor to announce that I have approved a plan for the Navy to begin the construction of two brand-new, very large — largest we’ve ever built — battleships,” President Trump announced from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida. He was joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John C. Phelan.

The future USS Defiant (BBG 1) will be the first Trump class battleship and is describe as “an unambiguous statement of American commitment to maritime superiority with capability to distribute more firepower across the fleet than any other class of ship, for any Navy, in history.”

“The President has been clear – we must bring back our American maritime industrial might, and he has told me many times that as Secretary of the Navy it is my job to equip our sailors to win the fight at sea with the finest ships in our history,” said Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan. “Now when a conflict arises, you’re going to ask us two questions: where is the carrier, and where is the battleship.”

The Trump class will be capable of operating in a traditional Integrated Air and Missile Defense role with a Carrier Strike Group or commanding its own Surface of th Action Group for Surface and Anti-Submarine Warfare efforts in addition to delivering long range hypersonic strategic fires and quarterbacking the operations of an entire fleet as the central command control node.

“As we forge the future of our Navy’s Fleet, we need a larger surface combatant and the Trump class battleships meet that requirement,” said Adm. Daryl Caudle, 34th Chief of Naval Operations. “We will ensure continuous improvement, intellectually honest assessments about the requirement to effectively deter and win in the 2030s and beyond, and disciplined execution resulting in a Fleet unparalleled in lethality, adaptability and strength.”

The battleship will be acquired using a Navy-led, industry-collaborative design team approach to accelerate design and construction and supported by over 1,000 suppliers in nearly every state in America. The Navy will continue to build and employ DDG 51 as its fleet workhorse and develop FF(X) as a highly produceable combatant, growing the fleet rapidly through a more intentional high/low mix of capability and platforms.

The Navy says that the USS Defiant, will be part of a new class of large surface combatants with the most destructive fire power of any surface ship to ever sail — having the ability to strike an adversary at 100x the range of the previous class. The Trump-class battleship will be the first-ever guided missile battleship with the ability to deploy with nuclear and hypersonic missiles.

The new battleship will leverage state-of-the-art combat systems, including large missile vertical launch systems (LMVLS) to deliver long range hypersonic strike against strategic targets ashore that are unreachable by the current fleet and directed energy weapons to deliver more favorable exchange ratios against enemy threats.

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