Overview
- President Trump introduced a Trump-class battleship on Dec. 22 as the centerpiece of a new Golden Fleet, with the Navy billing it as the most lethal surface combatant and highlighting dense missile magazines, hypersonic Conventional Prompt Strike and a sea-launched nuclear cruise missile capability alongside railguns and lasers.
- Independent estimates put the price at roughly $8–$10 billion per ship with projections that only a handful might be built, citing recent Navy program troubles including the truncated Zumwalt destroyers, the curtailed Littoral Combat Ship and a canceled Constellation effort.
- Experts argue the concept conflicts with the Navy’s distributed operations approach and would create large, high-value targets, with one analyst calling the notional 35,000–39,000‑ton vessel a potential “bomb magnet.”
- Structural weaknesses in U.S. shipbuilding are cited as a major hurdle, with Navy Secretary John Phelan acknowledging widespread delays and overruns and reporting that the United States now produces under 1% of commercial hulls as China turns out roughly half.
- Coverage notes a long runway with design work in early stages and introduction discussed for the 2030s, persistent uncertainty over railgun and laser maturity, escalation concerns tied to nuclear-capable cruise missiles, and assessments that the signaling appears aimed at China.