President Donald Trump on Monday shared details about new additions to what he’s calling the US Navy’s “Golden Fleet” — two large flagships heavily armed with cutting-edge technology.
- President Donald Trump announced new “Trump-class” ships for the US Navy Golden Fleet.
- Trump said that up to 25 ships will be built, with construction set to start immediately.
- The Navy said these ships will feature a railgun, high-powered lasers, and nuclear cruise missiles.
The “Trump-class” ships, which the president described as “battleships,” were announced Monday afternoon at a press conference alongside Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, Navy Secretary John Phelan, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The first of these vessels will be called the USS Defiant, Phelan said. Posters of the warship were on display at the press conference held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
The warship would be one of the Navy’s largest: It’s supposed to be 880 feet long and displace 35,000 tons of water, with a crew of up to 850. The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, by comparison, is 505 feet long and displaces about 10,000 tons.
The concept of the battleship goes back to the early 20th Century, when militaries projected naval power with heavily armed capital ships. They largely fell out of favor with the rise of missiles and aircraft, but Trump said they’ll now return with “100 times the force and power.”
What’s supposed to be on the ‘Trump-class’ ship
The new vessel’s announced capabilities are highly ambitious, as much of its planned weaponry is still thought to be in testing and has not yet been confirmed as operationally fielded by the Navy.
They include a 32-megajoule railgun on the ship’s bow for firing a high-velocity projectile, which relies on its kinetic force to devastate a target instead of an explosive warhead. The ship is meant to feature two other five-inch guns that fire high-velocity projectiles.
The Navy said the ship will also be armed with a 12-cell launcher for Conventional Prompt Strike missiles, which are hypersonic missiles that use boost glide technology to attack long-range targets at extreme speeds.
Such weapons are difficult to intercept because they can maneuver deftly at over five times the speed of sound, and include the famous missile that China unnerved US officials by testing in 2017.
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