President unveils new 'Trump class' fleet of battleships

cnn.com

6 points·p_ing··5 comments

Why do they call a proposal for ships that haven't been designed the unveiling of a fleet?

He isn't very likely to live long enough for his stupid aesthetic choices to end up in the final designs, if they even get built.

Because he's an attention-seeking child?

They will turn out to be the equivalent of an Edsel in a few decades time. Especially if they are over budget and/or crappy

Ships and planes look like they do to avoid providing radar return. The old aesthetics had lots of right angles and sharp edges that lit up radar screens quite well. If the Prez is going to throw away stealth, he’s right that everybody will always know where the Trump class targets are located.

And they better not throw away all those small ships cuz they have asw suites. Something to keep those pesky ssn’s at arms length.

glances at the Zumwalt class

Stealth has a time and a place. Right now, stealth on a 40,000 ton warship would guarantee that it's another disaster program with only a handful of hulls. Taking into account China's reliance on drone and satellite targeting, I don't think over-the-horizon radar stealth was going to be much help anyways. Ships that large are always dependent on point-defense and electronic countermeasures.

Also, while Trump loves to put his name on stuff everywhere, it's worth noting that this probably isn't solely his idea. The Navy has wanted a replacement for the Arleigh Burke for a while, and making a larger BMD-focused version seems pretty well in-line with Trump's vision of power projection.

I won't go to bat for much of his policy, but this boat just seems to be ticking the box on an old US Navy requirement in the same way the F-47 is a whitelabel NGAD.

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