Christine Drews Sieger
A proposed $275 billion fleet of heavily armed Trump-class battleships is sparking intense debate over America’s defense priorities.
Building a brand-new line of heavily armed vessels will require an unprecedented financial commitment from Washington.
According to Congressional Budget Office projections reported by AFP, a planned 15-ship fleet named after President Donald Trump carries an estimated price tag of $275 billion, Digi24 reports.
That estimate places the proposed fleet among the most costly naval programs in American history.
To put the price tag into perspective, the lead ship’s $23.4 billion cost exceeds even the inflation-adjusted price of the USS Gerald Ford—the world’s largest aircraft carrier, which cost $13.3 billion in 2008.
Follow-up vessels in the Trump class are expected to cost around $18 billion each.
Heavy firepower planned
President Donald Trump first announced the high-tech warship program in late December, naming the new class of ships after himself.
Bestowing a leader’s name on active military vessels strays from traditional White House protocol, which typically reserves such honors for presidents who have already completed their time in office.
These planned nuclear-powered vessels are designed to carry immense firepower.
CBO data shows the fleet will be equipped with advanced weaponry ranging from railguns and directed-energy lasers to hypersonic capabilities, air defense systems, and nuclear-capable cruise missiles.
While these new vessels will dwarf current US cruisers and destroyers, their total mass will still fall short of the iconic Iowa-class battleships decommissioned in the 1990s, according to Digi24.
Chasing the competitor
American defense officials currently acknowledge that the United States has fallen behind China in total naval fleet size.
A report delivered to Congress last year highlighted growing anxiety among military planners regarding the rapid speed of Beijing’s shipbuilding programs.
Investing in giant warships aims to address those strategic concerns.
Whether lawmakers will approve such a staggering budget remains an open question as Congress prepares to debate the proposal, Digi24 reports.
Competing priorities
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the scale of the proposed investment is also expected to spark debate over US defense spending priorities.
In its analysis of the Navy’s long-term shipbuilding plans, the Congressional Budget Office notes that submarines are projected to consume nearly half of future new-ship construction funding, reflecting the Navy’s growing emphasis on undersea warfare.
Critics of the Trump-class proposal are therefore likely to argue that dedicating hundreds of billions of dollars to a new battleship fleet could come at the expense of other priorities, including submarines, destroyers, frigates, and the broader modernization of the fleet.
