Trump Orders the Navy to Return to an Older System of Launching Jets Off Aircraft Carriers
The directive would require a costly redesign and could delay the carrier into the late 2030s, officials and naval experts said.
- On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed a national security memorandum directing the Navy to replace electromagnetic launch systems with steam catapults on the USS Doris Miller, requiring Pentagon leaders to submit a transition plan within 60 days.
- Trump has repeatedly criticized modern electromagnetic catapults since 2017, claiming they are "not nearly as good, too complex," and frequently urging the Navy to return to steam-powered systems he described as "battle-tested."
- General Atomics, the EMALS manufacturer, warned that changing course on the Doris Miller—which is nearly 50% complete—introduces significant cost, schedule, and integration risks, stating the decision "warrants careful reconsideration."
- Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, criticized the memo, stating he "wouldn't suggest to the Navy how to engineer specific systems," amid concerns about rising costs and personnel requirements.
- The memorandum directs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to submit a plan within 120 days for a fifth public shipyard to bolster maintenance capacity for the growing submarine and carrier fleet.
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Donald Trump has a long, long, long list of enemies that he keeps in his mange-riddled brain, and over which he can be found fuming at any given moment no matter where he is or what he’s doing. Democrats. The Deep State. The fake news media. James Comey. Adam “Shifty” Shift. Cholesterol. Diet Pepsi. RINOs. Adult diapers with insufficient control of heavy adult leakage. Hollywood. Communists. Socialists. Marxists. The old-money Manhattan elite wh…
President Trump orders the Navy to return to an older system of launching jets off aircraft carriers
President Trump is ordering the U.S. Navy to remove the advanced system used to launch fighter jets from its newest aircraft carriers and return to an older system that he has long said he prefers.
Donald Trump wants steam catapults on American aircraft carriers. A step backward that would cost the navy billions of dollars, but one that the US president has been advocating for years.
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