Yesterday, the White House issued an executive order designed to accomplish one of its goals from the President’s first term: hamstringing a major American fleet unit. Alongside an order that allowed US warships to be built in foreign yards, President Donald J. Trump mandated that the US Navy redesign its latest aircraft carrier to replace the electromagnetic catapult system (EMALS) with older steam catapult technology.
The change is likely to incur substantial, unnecessary expense and delays in the construction of the fourth vessel of the CVN-78 class of aircraft carriers.
An F/A-18E Super Hornet aircraft approaches the flight deck of the world’s largest aircraft carrier, Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), Nov. 17, 2025. U.S. military forces are deployed to the Caribbean in support of the U.S. Southern Command mission, Department of War-directed operations, and the president’s priorities to disrupt illicit drug trafficking and protect the homeland. (U.S. Navy photo)
Catapults and US Navy Aircraft Carriers
Steam catapults were introduced in the US Navy (having been borrowed from the Royal Navy) in the 1950s as a way of launching heavier aircraft than could be contemplated by previous hydraulic catapults.
The system has served effectively for decades and is currently installed on all ten Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.
However, steam catapults have reached the point of diminishing returns in their evolution, relying on bulky, maintenance-heavy components and lacking the efficiency of new designs.
The designers of the CVN-78 class saw an electromagnetic system as a way to sidestep some of the problems with steam.
The EMALS system uses energy more efficiently (important in an increasingly demanding energy environment) to launch aircraft while putting less stress on the airframe.
USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) conducts high-speed turns in the Atlantic Ocean. Ford is at sea conducting sea trials following the in port portion of its 15 month post-shakedown availability. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Connor Loessin)
They take up less space, require a smaller maintenance crew, and, perhaps most importantly, can be calibrated for aircraft of different weights and sizes, making them theoretically ideal for launching small, light unmanned aerial vehicles.
In short, EMALS increases the carrier’s sortie rate and flexibility, while saving energy and crew space and relieving stress on aircraft.
On the downside, EMALS has experienced teething problems in service with the USS Gerald R. Ford, and technical issues associated with construction have contributed to delays in the first two CVN-78 ships.
These issues were regarded with embarrassment by the Navy but also represented the kind of teething problems that are often associated with the introduction of a complex new technological system.
These problems did not deter others from adopting electromagnetic systems as the international standard.
PANG Aircraft Carrier from France. Image Credit: Industry Handout.
China’s latest aircraft carrier (CNS Fujian) is equipped with EMALS, and the next generation of carriers is expected to use them as well. France plans to use an EMALS system on its next carrier.
Impact on the Ford-Class Supercarrier
For now, the executive order will affect only one warship.
The first three ships of the CVN-78 class (Ford, Kennedy, and Enterprise) will retain the EMALS catapult systems that are already installed or in an advanced state of construction. But the fourth ship, the Dorrie Miller (CVN-81), will require a significant redesign in order to move forward with a steam catapult system.
The catapult system is integrated into the CVN-78 system from the ground up; changing it would require significant structural changes to the ship’s overall design and would result in a vessel with very different capabilities and maintenance requirements than the rest of the class.
USS Gerald R. Ford Google Maps Photo Screenshot.
It is not a stretch to argue that CVN-81 would become an entirely different class of aircraft carrier as a result of these changes.
The problems extend to construction.
The last carrier equipped with steam catapults, the USS George HW Bush, entered service seventeen years ago.
While the Navy has decades of experience with steam on carriers, industry hasn’t actually built a system in nearly twenty years. Reconstituting a supply chain and re-establishing the human capital necessary to build and install the systems, as well as design a carrier around them, will take time and money.
Impossible
This is a nightmare for the US Navy. Although navalists have generally been happy with this administration, few, if any, serious naval architecture analysts have spoken up in defense of this shift.
Indeed, the Navy has been trying to avoid the steam catapult issue since early in Trump’s first term. With a bit more than two years left in his term, the Navy will likely continue to stonewall and obstruct, slow-walking the redesign of CVN-81 until Trump leaves office.
The most likely impact will be a delay in the construction of Dorrie Miller to evaluate these design changes, along with all the corresponding cost increases.
Let there be no mistake; this is an unprecedented intervention by a President in a matter of deep technical concern.
No previous President has mandated changes in naval architecture at such a granular level, and none has done so with less grasp of the technical issues involved.
Fortunately, President Trump’s intervention will likely result in no more than a delay in the construction of the fourth Ford-class carrier, as any successor of either party is likely to reverse the order in January 2029.
About the Author: Robert M. Farley
Dr. Robert M. Farley has taught security and diplomacy courses at the Patterson School since 2005. He received his BS from the University of Oregon in 1997 and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 2004. Dr. Farley is the author of Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force (University Press of Kentucky, 2014), the Battleship Book (Wildside, 2016), Patents for Power: Intellectual Property Law and the Diffusion of Military Technology (University of Chicago, 2020), and most recently Waging War with Gold: National Security and the Finance Domain Across the Ages (Lynne Rienner, 2023). He has contributed extensively to a number of journals and magazines, including the National Interest, the Diplomat: APAC, World Politics Review, and the American Prospect. Dr. Farley is also a founder and senior editor of Lawyers, Guns and Money.
