US President Donald Trump announced the US Navy will build a new “Trump-class” battleship as part of the White House push to modernise a fleet that has been hobbled by years of cost overruns and delays.
A poster displayed at the event at Trump’s gilded Mar-a-Lago estate featured an artist’s rendering of a sleek-looking warship dubbed the USS Defiant, cutting through choppy waters with a laser beam shooting from its deck and smoke billowing from a target in the background.
Next to the ship was a picture of Trump raising his fist in the air in a near copy of the defiant pose he struck minutes after surviving an assassination attempt in 2024. Another poster shows a rendering of the vessel sailing by the Statue of Liberty.
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“Some of them have gotten old and tired and obsolete, and we’re going to go the exact opposite direction,” Trump said. “The US Navy will lead the design of these ships alongside me because I’m a very aesthetic person.”
The US Navy is also pursuing a new frigate based on the Legend-class cutter as it looks to shore up a surface combatant fleet that is one-third the size the service needs, it announced December 19. The ship, dubbed the FF(X), will be built by Newport News, Virginia-based HII.
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