Politico | ‘Goddamned steam’: Donald Trump’s aircraft carrier obsession sets up collision with US Navy and Congress
- For the past two years, the US Navy’s plan to field electromagnetic catapults has been a pet peeve for Donald Trump
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Wesley Morgan on politico.com on May 29, 2019.
US President Donald Trump is ratcheting up the pressure on the US Navy to return to the days of steam-powered catapults for launching jets from aircraft carriers – a multibillion-dollar shift that could take nearly two decades to achieve and would likely spur a clash with Congress.
Trump has spent two years criticising the US Navy's decision to switch to an electromagnetic launch system for its newest class of aircraft carriers, citing delays in rolling out the technology and complaining that “you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out”.
But he kicked his old-tech obsession up a notch during his visit to Japan, telling US service members he plans to order the US Navy to outfit all its new carriers with steam catapults.
“So I think I’m going to put an order: when we build a new aircraft carrier, we’re going to use steam,” Trump told sailors and Marines aboard the amphibious assault shift USS Wasp at a US Navy base south of Tokyo on Tuesday.
He renewed his complaint that the new technology could be unreliable during battle.
“We’re spending all that money on electric, and nobody knows what it’s going to be like in bad conditions.”