Promises made, the 'Trump' class battleship has arrived!

A few months ago, U.S. President Trump’s remarks about ‘reviving battleships’ were met with ridicule from various quarters. But no one expected that everything would come true today—Trump, alongside U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Navy Secretary John R. Venable, announced on the 22nd at Mar-a-Lago that the U.S. Navy will construct a brand new 'Trump' class battleship—this will be the most powerful surface combat vessel in the U.S. Navy.

According to the U.S. Naval Institute website on the 22nd, the new 'Trump' class battleships will have a displacement of over 35,000 tons, making them the first type of battleship built by the U.S. Navy since 1944. The lead ship, designated 'BBG-1', represents a new class of vessels in the U.S. Navy—missile battleships. The enormous displacement of the 'Trump' class battleships also means they will replace the 28,000-ton Russian 'Kirov' class nuclear-powered cruisers, becoming the largest surface combat vessels in the world (typically, aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships are not included as surface combat vessels).

Currently, the 'Zumwalt' class destroyer, with a displacement of 15,000 tons, is the largest surface combat vessel in active service in the U.S. Navy. Previously, the U.S. Navy proposed building a 20,000-ton missile cruiser CG9 (X), but due to cost and timeline issues, the Obama administration canceled the project in 2010. Speaking of battleships, those familiar with military history should be no strangers to them. They were once the core capital ships of navies around the world, typically equipped with heavy armor and large-caliber artillery, representing the 'big ship big gun' era.

Battleships maintained their core status in the navy until World War II, gradually declining with the rise of aircraft carriers. Even so, the U.S. Navy's 'Iowa' class battleships were reactivated from reserve status several times to participate in various regional conflicts, even becoming involved in the Gulf War in the early 1990s after modernization, and only fully retired in the early 21st century. However, the 'Trump' class battleship proposed by the U.S. Navy replaces the traditional battleship's 'big guns and thick armor' with modern hypersonic missiles and multiple defense systems. Information released by the U.S. Navy shows that the 'Trump' class battleship will be 840-880 feet long (approximately 256-268 meters), with a maximum speed exceeding 30 knots, and a crew of about 650-850 people. Its main armament includes sea-based nuclear cruise missiles, a 12-cell 'conventional rapid strike' long-range hypersonic missile vertical launch system, a 128-cell MK-41 vertical launch system, a 32-megajoule electromagnetic railgun, two 127mm naval guns, and various laser interception weapons, making it heavily armed.

In addition, its flight deck and hangar can accommodate V-22 'Osprey' tiltrotor aircraft and next-generation vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. Just looking at the paper data, the 'Trump' class battleship can be said to be 'powerful'. However, a closer examination reveals issues—this core of the U.S. Navy's future fleet actually adopts the mature combat systems and weapons equipped by the 'Arleigh Burke' class Flight III destroyers, including AN/SPY-6 active phased array radar, MK-41 vertical launch systems, 127mm naval guns, and 'Odin' laser defense systems. The 12-cell 'conventional rapid strike' long-range hypersonic missile vertical launch system comes from the 'Zumwalt' class destroyer currently undergoing modernization.

In other words, the seemingly robust 'Trump' class battleship actually replicates the main weaponry of the 9,000-ton 'Arleigh Burke' class destroyer, as well as the hypersonic missiles of the 15,000-ton 'Zumwalt' class destroyer—by the way, while the 'conventional rapid strike' hypersonic missile has a range of over 3,500 kilometers, its warhead weighs a laughably small 13.6 kilograms, which is even lighter than the warhead of the AIM-120 air-to-air missile... Although the larger internal space of the 'Trump' class battleship can fully utilize the performance of these advanced weapons, this also exposes a huge waste of tonnage in its overall design—the scale of existing weapons does not require such a large hull. The U.S. Navy's explanation is that the extra space will provide more possibilities for future upgrades—such as high-power directed energy weapons, stealth electromagnetic railguns, etc.

Of course, when they will actually go to sea is another matter. However, this 'flashy but impractical' battleship will inevitably squeeze the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding budget significantly. The U.S. Naval Institute website estimates that based on the size of the battleship and the systems included, the cost of building this warship at U.S. shipyards could be between 10 billion and 15 billion dollars—comparable to the average cost of a 'Ford' class aircraft carrier. Currently, the first two 'Trump' class battleships have been authorized for construction, and the U.S. Navy plans to build 10 ships, with a maximum of 25. Should we build 10 'Trump' class battleships or 10 'Ford' class supercarriers? Comparing the armaments and roles of these two modern naval capital ships, I believe everyone has their own answer. Of course, if the U.S. Navy insists on continuing down the wrong path, we don't need to help persuade them, right?