Trump's Navy
Dec. 23rd, 2025 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribSo apparently last week's "seriously considering" building battleships for the US Navy morphed into yesterday's full-fledged announcement of the Trump-class battleship, complete with pretty paintings (important for Trump) and some actual technical details (see previous link). Also somewhat lost in the hoopla is that the US Navy is cancelling the way over-budget and way late Constellation class frigate. To replace it, we will essentially buy US Coast Guard cutters and paint them gray. Said "frigates" will not have VLS systems, and so will lack significant anti-air capacity. I have thoughts.
Battleship Dreams
1) Trump's battleships, or a version thereof, have been proposed and discussed for decades. Most of the proposals have been called "arsenal ships" and were basically exercises in "how many VLS missile cells can I cram on a ship and have it still float." The current proposal does have the advantage of more balanced weapons loadout. The only truly experimental weapon is an electromagnetic rail gun, of which the Japanese have recently fired from a ship.
2) The ship is conventionally-powered, which means it will suck a lot of fuel. The US Navy's tanker fleet is stretched now - will we spend the money to build (unglamorous) tankers?
3) The question of where to build such a behemoth (30,000 tons = WWI dreadnought) has been answered - a Korean-owned shipyard in Philadelphia which doesn't seem to have a lot of orders on the books.
4) Three big questions are unanswered, namely a) do we need such a behemoth, b) will Congress fund it? c) One ship, no matter how good, can only be in one place at any given time. Can and will we build enough?
Frigate Reality
1) Cancelling the Constellation is at this point a no-brainer. The original idea, which was "build a European frigate with US radars" has sailed a long time ago.
2) The proposed FF(X) has the same (lack of) firepower as the much-derided (and rightfully so) LCS. What se seem to be getting, at least with Block 1, is something that's much more mechanically-reliable. I will note that Ingalls, the current builder, did originally propose a version of this ship with a small VLS array. One hopes that Block 2 can regain that capability.
3) The FF(X) is supposed to get the same modular weapons systems as the LCS. This makes me nervous, although given that the modules will merely be set on an open back deck it should be easier to actually, you know, provide the modules.
I am no fan of Trump, however I have to say at least these two proposals are worthy of serious consideration.
Battleship Dreams
1) Trump's battleships, or a version thereof, have been proposed and discussed for decades. Most of the proposals have been called "arsenal ships" and were basically exercises in "how many VLS missile cells can I cram on a ship and have it still float." The current proposal does have the advantage of more balanced weapons loadout. The only truly experimental weapon is an electromagnetic rail gun, of which the Japanese have recently fired from a ship.
2) The ship is conventionally-powered, which means it will suck a lot of fuel. The US Navy's tanker fleet is stretched now - will we spend the money to build (unglamorous) tankers?
3) The question of where to build such a behemoth (30,000 tons = WWI dreadnought) has been answered - a Korean-owned shipyard in Philadelphia which doesn't seem to have a lot of orders on the books.
4) Three big questions are unanswered, namely a) do we need such a behemoth, b) will Congress fund it? c) One ship, no matter how good, can only be in one place at any given time. Can and will we build enough?
Frigate Reality
1) Cancelling the Constellation is at this point a no-brainer. The original idea, which was "build a European frigate with US radars" has sailed a long time ago.
2) The proposed FF(X) has the same (lack of) firepower as the much-derided (and rightfully so) LCS. What se seem to be getting, at least with Block 1, is something that's much more mechanically-reliable. I will note that Ingalls, the current builder, did originally propose a version of this ship with a small VLS array. One hopes that Block 2 can regain that capability.
3) The FF(X) is supposed to get the same modular weapons systems as the LCS. This makes me nervous, although given that the modules will merely be set on an open back deck it should be easier to actually, you know, provide the modules.
I am no fan of Trump, however I have to say at least these two proposals are worthy of serious consideration.
