President Donald Trump has unveiled plans to build a new class of battleships that will be equipped with advanced deep-strike weapons and deliver enhanced firepower to the U.S. Navy.
Named after the president, the Trump-class ships will be thrice the size of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and will operate alongside a Carrier Strike Group to provide traditional integrated air and missile defense capabilities or lead a Surface Action Group for surface and anti-submarine warfare missions, the Navy said on Dec. 22.
“They’ll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far, 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built,” Trump stated in a report from Breaking Defense.
The Trump-class ships are part of Golden Fleet, a military initiative to revitalize the domestic maritime industrial base.
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How Powerful Will USS Defiant Be?
During a presentation at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, the president, alongside Navy Secretary John Phelan and War Secretary and 2025 Wash100 awardee Pete Hegseth, introduced USS Defiant, the first Trump-class battleship.
“The future Trump-class battleship – the USS Defiant – will be the largest, deadliest and most versatile and best-looking warship anywhere on the world’s oceans,” Phelan stated.
Renderings of USS Defiant revealed that the ship will have SPY-6 radar arrays, Block III Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program systems, missile launchers and gun systems, Naval News reported.
When Will Trump-Class Battleships Sail?
The Department of War revealed that the Trump-class battleships are still in the design phase, with USS Defiant projected to begin construction in the early 2030s.
The U.S. Navy will first build two new battleships, but plans are in place to expand the service’s Trump-class fleet to up to 25 ships.
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