The US will soon have the largest, deadliest, most versatile, and best-looking nuclear-capable warship anywhere in the world’s oceans—and these will be named after US President Donald Trump.
The new Trump-class battleships will replace the US Navy's earlier plans to develop a new class of destroyer, the DDG(X).
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The US President announced on Monday that, as part of the efforts to expand the US naval buildup, the US would commission a new series of Navy "battleships" as part of a revamped "Golden Fleet", and that these would be named after himself, breaking away from the tradition of naming battleship classes after US states.
The expansion of the US Navy is expected to have both manned and unmanned vessels, including larger missile-armed warships. This new class of American-designed, 30,000- to 40,000-ton large surface combatants is currently in the design phase, with construction of the first battleship, the USS Defiant, targeted for the early 2030s.
The programme will begin with two vessels and is expected to increase to between 20 and 25 warships. The first vessels in this class, according to Trump, will be operational in less than three years.
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The US president claimed the “Trump-class battleships” would be capable of carrying hypersonic weapons that would be “extremely lethal.”
“We envision that these ships will be the first of a whole new class of battleships to be produced in the years to come,” the US president said.
"These have been under design consideration for a long time, and it started with me in my first term, because I said, 'Why aren’t we doing battleships like we used to?'"
Navy Secretary John Phelan said the upcoming vessel, dubbed the USS Defiant, will be “the largest, deadliest, and most versatile and best-looking warship anywhere on the world’s oceans.”
Phelan said the new class of battleship is something the Navy "desperately needs." Comparing the future Trump-class battleships to the former Iowa-class battleships, he said, "The Iowa was designed to go on the attack with the biggest guns, and that's exactly what will define the Trump-class battleships: offensive firepower from the biggest guns of our era."
According to him, the Trump-class warship "isn't just to swat the arrows; it is going to reach out and kill the archers."