President Donald Trump’s announcement of a new class of warships has shed new light on the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding program, which has failed to deliver new warships on time and under budget in recent years, Trump himself noted in a speech from Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
“We make the greatest equipment in the world, nobody comes close. But we don’t build them fast enough,” Trump said, announcing that he would soon meet with top U.S. military contractors to ramp up production of new warships and other weapons programs.
But at least in warship planning, the Navy appears to be swimming upstream, building the ships itself and carrying what the service says will be some of the weapons systems it says will be on board.
Here are some things to consider about the proposed “Trump-class” warships:
Perspective
A U.S. Navy fact sheet released Monday said the Trump class would be “the deadliest warship ever built.”
With lengths of up to 880 feet and displacements of 30,000 to 40,000 tons, they will also be the largest land warships built by the US Navy since World War II.
These warships, like the famous USS Missouri, which hosted the Japanese surrender in 1945, are 887 feet long and displace about 58,000 tons.
The largest land warship currently in the US Navy’s fleet is the Zumwalt destroyer, which displaces 15,000 tons.
As envisioned, the ships will have “the most devastating firepower of any land ship – capable of striking an adversary at a range 80 times greater than previous classes,” according to the Navy’s new website on the ships.
The warships will carry new nuclear-capable cruise missiles launched from 12 bays. The missiles will be hypersonic – more than five times the speed of sound – and capable of confusing enemy defenses.
Secretary of the Navy John Phelan speaks at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, on December 22, as President Donald Trump listens.
0 Comments