ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images
- President Donald Trump announced new “Trump-class” ships for the US Navy Golden Fleet.
- Trump said up to 25 ships will be built, with construction starting immediately.
- The first of these ships is the USS Defiant.
President Donald Trump on Monday shared details about new additions to what he’s calling the US Navy’s “Golden Fleet.”
Two “Trump-class” ships, which the president described as “battleships,” were announced Monday afternoon at a press conference alongside Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, Navy Secretary John Phelan, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Trump said they would be “AI-controlled” and have “lasers,” and he said that the design would be led by the US Navy with his aesthetic input.
The first of these ships will be called the USS Defiant, Phelan said. Posters of the warship were on display at the press conference held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
“We’re desperately in need of ships, and I have approved a plan for the Navy to begin construction of two large battleships,” he said. “We used to build the Iowa, the Missouri, the Alabama. These will be 100 times the force and power. Each one of these will be the largest battleships built in the history of our country.”
The president said that eventually “20 to 25” of the “Trump-class” ships will be made, and construction will start “immediately.”
The ships will be triple the size of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, according to the US Navy, and they will be capable of launching Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic missiles and the Surface Launch Cruise Missile-Nuclear.