NATO has stepped up its search for the latest Russian submarines in the North Atlantic
The US Navy said that the first Trump-class battleship will be ordered in 2028 at a cost of about $ 17 billion, and the final design of the ship has not yet been approved.
The US Navy is actively working on a program to build new Trump-class battleships to avoid mistakes that were made when creating previous warships, TWZ reports.
The key requirement is the formation of a well-developed project before the start of construction: it was the lack of such a study and numerous changes in the course of work that led to the failure of the Constellation-class frigate last year.
On the sidelines of the Sea Air Space 2026 exhibition, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Cadle announced plans to build the first ship of the series, which will be named USS Defiant, in fiscal year 2028. The preliminary cost of the flagship is estimated at $ 17 billion, and it is planned to spend $ 43.5 billion on the entire program over five years. For comparison, the latest Ford-class aircraft carriers cost about $13-15 billion per unit.
According to Phelan, the work on the project is being carried out taking into account previous mistakes: "One of the mistakes that we made before was that we started building when the project was not yet mature enough. Now we want to reach 80% readiness of the design documentation before the first welding." The Trump-class ships will have a displacement of approximately 35,000 tons, a length of up to 268 meters, a width of up to 35 meters and a speed of over 55 kilometers per hour.
The armament of the new battleships will consist of combined nuclear and conventional missiles, including hypersonic missiles, mounted in vertical launchers (128 are planned), a railgun, two 127-millimeter cannons, laser and other means of short-range defense. Currently, the possibility of using only traditional energy (diesel generators and gas turbines) is being considered, although the issue of a nuclear installation has not been definitively resolved.
An important feature of the new program will be the introduction of modern methods of digital design and modular assembly, which should stabilize the time and cost of construction. The Navy emphasizes that the experience of modular construction is already being used in Asia and will allow production to be distributed among several shipyards, and final assembly and integration to be carried out in the United States.
The Trump-class ships are planned to be used as platforms for a powerful strike and command posts as part of surface and aircraft carrier groups, as well as autonomously. However, TWZ experts express doubt about the expediency of such expensive single ships, emphasizing that they can become priority targets for the enemy and limit the flexibility of the Navy's actions. The decision on the continuation of the program will be made by the new management after 2028.
As the newspaper VZGLYAD wrote, US President Donald Trump announced the creation of a new "golden fleet" with battleships of the same class.
The plans for the construction of these huge warships have caused widespread public debate.
Military expert Ilya Kramnik questioned the ability of the American industry to implement this project.
Dmitry Zubarev
