President says the ships will be bigger, faster and a hundred times more powerful than any previous US-built warship<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. Donald Trump has announced plans<\/a> for the US navy to build a new generation of warships \u2013 known as \u201cTrump-class\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ships will be bigger, faster and a hundred times more powerful than any previous US-built warship, the president said on Monday. The project will begin with construction of two such battleships and eventually be expanded to 20 to 25 new vessels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Phelan, the navy secretary, added<\/a>: \u201cOur adversaries will know, when the Trump-class USS Defiant appears on the horizon, American victory at sea is inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Past battleship classes were typically named after US states. But Trump, whose name already adorns many hotels and golf clubs, is currently on what critics describe as a narcissistic spree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this month his administration renamed<\/a> the US Institute of Peace in Washington after him. Last week the Trump-appointed board of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington voted to rename it<\/a> the Trump-Kennedy Center and a sign was added, despite the move requiring congressional authorisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monday\u2019s announcement came at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, where three posters on easels<\/a> displayed potential images a new \u201cTrump class\u201d battleship called the USS Defiant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Phelan told reporters: \u201cThe future Trump-class battleship, the USS Defiant, will be the largest, deadliest and most versatile and best-looking warship anywhere on the world\u2019s oceans. I want to thank the president for his vision to make this game-changing capability for the United States navy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Iowa was designed to go on the attack with the biggest guns and that\u2019s exactly what will define the Trump-class battleships: offensive firepower from the biggest guns of our era. This ship isn\u2019t just to swat the arrows. It is going to reach out and kill the archers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Trump, Phelan approvingly cited Victory at Sea, a 1950s TV series<\/a> about naval combat during the second world war. \u201cNow this new battleship will command everything from warships to drones and everything in between,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to make battle groups great again.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Historically, the term battleship has referred to a huge, heavily armored vessel armed with massive guns designed to bombard other ships or targets ashore. This type of ship was most prominent during the second world war when the biggest of the US battleships, the Iowa-class, were roughly 60,000 tons. Trump said on Monday: \u201cWe envision that these ships will be the first of a whole new class of battleships to be produced in the years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI just want to be very clear that we\u2019re building them here. We\u2019re working with others but we\u2019re building them here. We have great navy yards. We\u2019ll be negotiating with some of the companies that are running those yards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cgolden fleet\u201d will boast hypersonic weapons and high-power lasers and will carry nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missiles currently under development, the president added. \u201cWe\u2019re going to restore America as a major shipbuilding power. We\u2019re going to ensure the USA is the most powerful fleet anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is more traditional for former presidents to be commemorated in the naming of aircraft carriers. In January the navy announced<\/a> that two future aircraft carriers will be named the USS William J Clinton and the USS George W Bush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the war, the battleship\u2019s role in modern fleets diminished rapidly in favour of aircraft carriers and long-range missiles. The US navy did modernise four Iowa-class battleships in the 1980s by adding cruise missiles and anti-ship missiles, along with modern radars, but by the 1990s all four were decommissioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n