Key Points and Summary – President Donald Trump has formally announced plans for a new “Trump-class” of U.S. Navy battleships, starting with USS Defiant, billed as the largest, most lethal surface combatant ever built.
-The ships are central to his envisioned “Golden Fleet,” promising massive gun and missile firepower and a revival of U.S. shipbuilding.
Trump-Class Battleship. Image Credit: Creative Commons/White House.
-But the concept faces serious questions: overstretched and underperforming shipyards, workforce shortages, unknown costs, and doubts about the survivability of huge surface ships in an era of long-range missiles and drones.
-Allies, analysts, and even China’s state media are skeptical that the Trump-class can move from renderings to reality.
Trump-Class Battleship: Not Heading to Fight China Anytime Soon
After teasing the idea for much of last year, President Donald Trump on Monday announced that the Navy will bring back battleships.
The announcement came at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, with Trump joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan.
“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,” the president said in the announcement, per the Pentagon.
The battleships will be called the Trump Class, and Trump introduced renderings of one of them, to be called the USS Defiant. The first such ship is “targeted” for the early 2030s, the Pentagon said.
Phelan added that the Navy eventually aims to build 20 to 25 of the ships.
Trump-Class Battleship. Image Credit: Creative Commons/White House Photo.
“The future Trump-class battleship, the USS Defiant, will be the largest, deadliest, most versatile, and best-looking warship anywhere on the world’s oceans,” Phelan said in the announcement.
The “best-looking” part is key, as Trump has spoken frequently in the lead-up to Monday and in the announcement itself about how he wants the ships to look. Trump was also clear that the vessels would be built in the United States, with American citizens doing the work.
“The Iowa was designed to go on the attack with the biggest guns, and that’s exactly what will define the Trump-class battleships: offensive firepower from the biggest guns of our era,” Phelan said Monday, per the Pentagon. “This ship isn’t just to swat the arrows; it is going to reach out and kill the archers.”
Whenever the ships are first used in combat, it will mark the first time American battleships have been used since the Persian Gulf War in 1991, when the last battleships were decommissioned soon after.
“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,” Phelan said in the announcement. “Now, when a conflict arises, you’re going to ask us two questions: where is the carrier, and where is the battleship?”
The Specs
A Naval website laid out some specs for the new “Golden Fleet” and its battleships.
The first ship, per the site, will be 840-880 feet long, with a speed of 30+ kts and a crew of 650-850.
“America’s next battleship, the USS Defiant, will be part of a new class of large surface combatants with the most destructive firepower 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.”
New U.S. Navy Battleships: Will It Really Happen?
When Trump discussed his battleship ideas previously, especially during the Quantico meeting in September, questions have been raised about the feasibility of bringing them back and whether they’re a fit for modern warfare.
USS Iowa battleship. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
A CNN analysis of the plans looks at how difficult it would be to build the ships, especially at a time when shipbuilding has been consistently behind schedule.
“The new battleships project would be led by a naval shipbuilding base that has struggled to deliver in recent years and which Navy Secretary John Phelan said this year was in disarray,” the CNN analysis said. “Then there’s the question of who will build these new battleships. US shipyards are already stretched thin with current construction, maintenance, and overhaul jobs.”
Analyst Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain, told CNN that for battleships to be built, closed shipyards would have to be opened, or new ones brought online. Finding enough workforce for such a project would also present a big challenge.
The CNN analysis also looked at the strategic question of whether massive ships are the way to go.
“That’s a question being posed of the current jewels of the US fleet—its aircraft carriers. Can the massive ships—about 1,100 feet long, the length of three football fields—survive a conflict with a peer adversary like China? … Some analysts say Washington should be focusing on large numbers of small naval vessels, capable of carrying a few missiles or drones each, and dispersing them across a vast range of waterways, negating Beijing’s advantage in missile numbers by presenting too many targets to handle.”
Meanwhile, The War Zone provided their own analysis of the battleship announcement.
“This appears to be the first time a class of Navy ships has been named after a sitting U.S. president,” TWZ wrote. “The Navy has often drawn criticism in the past for naming ships after living individuals, in general. It is unusual for the lead ship in a class of US Navy vessels not to bear the name of that class (USS Defiant here instead of something like USS Trump or USS Donald J. Trump), as well.”
“Major questions about the plans for the Trump class do remain, including when the USS Defiant might be launched, let alone enter service. What these ships might cost to produce, as well as operate and maintain, is another important open question.”
HMS Vanguard Battleship Royal Navy.
Battleship USS Texas. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
The View From China on the Trump-Class Battleship
Meanwhile, China’s state-controlled Global Times looked at the news through a lens of skepticism.
“A Chinese expert noted that the US’ new battleships are of a new genre of warship, but remained skeptical about their feasibility in modern naval warfare given their huge size,” the Global Times said.
Zhang Junshe, that Chinese military affairs expert, told the Global Times that “the large size of a battleship also makes it more vulnerable and potentially an easier target, particularly when it is densely loaded with munitions.”
“Announcing such a project could aim to revive the shipbuilding industry, but we must wait and see if it can succeed,” Zhang also said.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
