Nicolai Haugsted
Trump forces Navy to reverse course on technology it spent years developing.
Donald Trump is putting his personal stamp on another major American project, this time by ordering the Navy to rethink technology at the heart of one of its next-generation aircraft carriers.
A White House memorandum directs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to alter plans for the future USS Doris Miller, a multibillion-dollar warship already facing substantial delays.
Instead of using the electromagnetic system developed for the Navy’s newest generation of carriers, Trump wants aircraft launched using traditional steam-powered catapults.
The decision turns a subject the president has discussed repeatedly since his first term into official administration policy.
Modern system faces the axe
Launching a heavily armed military aircraft from the relatively short deck of an aircraft carrier requires considerable additional force.
Older American carriers relied on steam catapults for that job. The Gerald R. Ford class introduced a different approach through the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, better known as EMALS.
Electromagnetic technology became part of the Navy’s attempt to modernize carrier operations, but Trump has never been convinced that the change was worthwhile.
His criticism stretches back to 2017. Trump has said that a conversation with a Navy officer helped persuade him that the newer technology was overly complicated and that steam represented the better option.
Presidential criticism has now become a formal instruction.
Trump’s memorandum, titled “Rebuilding the United States Navy and America’s Shipbuilding Industrial Base,” orders the change for the USS Doris Miller, also designated CVN-81.
Troubled timetable adds another complication
The carrier affected by Trump’s intervention is already confronting scheduling problems.
USS Doris Miller will become the fourth Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier, but current projections do not anticipate delivery until around 2034. That timetable represents a delay of approximately two years.
Changing a fundamental system planned for a vessel belonging to a class designed around newer technology creates another issue for a program already under pressure.
Trump’s administration presents the intervention as part of a larger effort to simplify American naval construction rather than merely a change involving one carrier.
The White House memorandum points to “a series of shipbuilding setbacks stemming from overly complex designs” as a problem requiring action.
Few technical details of aircraft-carrier construction have attracted as much personal attention from Trump as the debate over electromagnetic and steam catapults.
The president has repeatedly advocated returning to the older system, arguing that simpler technology offers advantages over its more sophisticated replacement.
Previous criticism largely consisted of public comments about how the Navy should build its ships. His latest directive moves beyond rhetoric by instructing the Pentagon to implement his preferred solution on a carrier already under development.
USS Doris Miller carries the name of Doris Miller, a Navy cook whose actions during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor earned him the Navy Cross.
Hegseth and the Navy must now determine how Trump’s order will be incorporated into the carrier program as construction proceeds toward its already delayed delivery date.
