US President Donald Trump, flanked by Navy Secretary John Phelan (R), declares the US Navy’s new Golden Fleet initiative, unveiling a brand new class of frigates, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Seaside, Florida, on December 22, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | Afp | Getty Pictures
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled plans for a brand new “Trump-class” battleship, declaring it could be “the quickest, the most important, and by far, 100 occasions extra highly effective than any battleship ever constructed.”
He hailed the ships as “a few of the most deadly floor warfare ships,” promising they might “assist keep American army supremacy [and] encourage concern in America’s enemies all around the world.”
However there may be one evident drawback: battleships have been out of date for many years. The final was constructed greater than 80 years in the past, and the U.S. Navy retired the final Iowa-class ships practically 30 years in the past.
As soon as symbols of naval may with their huge weapons, battleships have lengthy since been eclipsed by plane carriers and fashionable destroyers armed with long-range missiles.
Whereas labeling the brand new floor combatants as “battleships” could possibly be a misnomer, protection specialists say that there stay a number of gaps between Trump’s imaginative and prescient and fashionable naval warfare.
Mark Cancian, a senior adviser on the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research, dismissed the thought, writing in a Dec. 23 commentary that “there may be no use for mentioned dialogue as a result of this ship won’t ever sail.”
He contended this system would take too lengthy to design, value far an excessive amount of and run counter to the Navy’s present technique of distributed firepower.
“A future administration will cancel this system earlier than the primary ship hits the water,” Cancian mentioned.
Bernard Bathroom, senior fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam College of Worldwide Research, described the proposal as “a status venture greater than anything.”
He in contrast it to Japan’s World Conflict II super-battleships Yamato and Musashi — the biggest ever constructed — which have been sunk by carrier-borne plane earlier than taking part in a major function in fight.
{Photograph} of the IJN Yamato, the lead ship of the Yamato class of battleships that served with the Imperial Japanese Navy throughout World Conflict II. Dated 1941. (Picture by: Photo12/Common Pictures Group by way of Getty Pictures)
Picture 12 | Common Pictures Group | Getty Pictures
“Traditionally, we checked out battleships and the larger the higher… [and] in a really layman’s perspective of technique, dimension issues,” Bathroom mentioned.
He added that the scale of the proposed battleship — displacing greater than 35,000 tons and measuring greater than 840 toes, or somewhat over two soccer fields lengthy — would make it a “bomb magnet.”
“The dimensions and the status worth of all of it make it an much more tempting goal, doubtlessly to your adversary,” Bathroom mentioned.
Bryan Clark, a senior fellow on the Hudson Institute, steered Trump could also be drawn to the symbolic energy of battleships, which have been probably the most seen icons of naval firepower for a lot of the twentieth century.
The usMissouri, accomplished in 1944 and the final U.S. battleship constructed, famously hosted Japan’s give up in 1945.
Japanese give up signatories arrive aboard the united statesMissouri to take part in give up ceremonies, Tokyo Bay, Japan, U.S. Military Sign Corps, September 2, 1945. (Picture by: Circa Pictures/GHI/Common Historical past Archive/Common Pictures Group by way of Getty Pictures)
Common Historical past Archive | Common Pictures Group | Getty Pictures
Clark famous that the U.S. Navy recommissioned 4 World Conflict II battleships within the Nineteen Eighties as a part of its 600-ship fleet enlargement technique throughout the Chilly Conflict to counter the Soviet Union. “This can be an period during which the president believes the U.S. final had naval supremacy.”
Battleships final noticed fight in 1991, when retrofitted Iowa-class battleships offered shore bombardment fireplace help to coalition forces within the first Gulf Conflict.
The battleship USS Wisconsin (BB-64) launches a BGM-109 Tomahawk missile in opposition to a goal in Iraq throughout Operation Desert Storm. (Picture by © CORBIS/Corbis by way of Getty Pictures)
Historic | Corbis Historic | Getty Pictures
What’s in a reputation?
Clark famous that the classification issues lower than the weapons a ship carries.
In response to the U.S. Navy, the Trump-class battleship — a part of a brand new “golden fleet” of warships — will probably be geared up with weapons equivalent to typical weapons and missiles, in addition to digital rail weapons and laser-based weaponry. It would additionally have the ability to carry nuclear and hypersonic missiles.
Such a vessel would primarily perform like a big destroyer, no matter whether or not it’s known as a battleship.
Nonetheless, CSIS’ Cancian countered that such a design runs in opposition to the Navy’s distributed operations mannequin, which seeks to cut back vulnerability by spreading firepower throughout many property.
“This proposal would go within the different path, constructing a small variety of giant, costly, and doubtlessly weak property,” he wrote.
Even when the Trump-class battleship proves technically possible, analysts mentioned value could be the decisive impediment.
Bathroom mentioned U.S. weapons applications routinely exceed timelines and budgets.
The Navy’s Zumwalt‑class destroyers — the biggest floor combatants at present at 15,000 tons — have been decreased from 32 to 3 ships because of spiraling prices. Extra lately, the Constellation‑class frigate was canceled because of design and workforce challenges.
Clark estimated the Trump‑class would value two to 3 occasions greater than immediately’s destroyers. With Arleigh Burke destroyers priced at about $2.7 billion every, that suggests a single battleship might value upward of $8 billion.
The price of crewing and sustaining them will put extra strain on an already strained Navy price range, he added.
RSIS’ Bathroom was extra essential in his evaluation, calling the choice a strategic mistake. “On the very least, so far as I am involved, it is strategic hubris.”
