President Donald Trump has announced a bold plan for the Navy to build a new, large warship that he is calling a “battleship” as part of a larger vision to create a “Golden Fleet.”
“They’ll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built,” Trump claimed during the announcement at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
... He said Monday he will have a direct role in designing this new warship as well.
“The U.S. Navy will lead the design of these ships along with me, because I’m a very aesthetic person,” Trump said.
Donnie the Naval Architect. Right. One might wonder why the Demented Designer didn't insist that the ships include masts for backup.
Very large surface combatants have been obsolete for a century. The proliferation of drones has only increased increased that obsolescence. Ukraine, with no navy to speak of, has used drones, aerial, surface and subsurface, to operationally drive the Russian Navy out the Black Sea. That is, Gentle Reader, a harbinger of the future of surface ship operations no less telling than the sinking of the SMS Ostfriesland.
I don't disagree that American shipbuilding, other than submarines, is a shitshow. But building these Trumpy warships, which might as well be called the Very Large Target Class, is a piss-poor way to remedy that.
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He will doubtless order them to run on coal-fired steam, thereby unwittingly reversing Churchill's great mistake of 1911.
Dang spielwreck!
Didn't the navies of the world learn in WWII that the battleships aka
the Dreadnaughts was easily beaten by aircraft and their associated
carriers? Least I thought that was the case.
Most striking example was the Bismarck crippled by Fairey Swordfish
launched from the Ark Royal a slow British fabric biplane that did
with a single bomb hit. Same fate for Yamato and Musashi.
No battleship then could outrun aircraft, nor missiles now.
Eck!
So I think the USN sees Trump’s naval designer fantasies as a way to get new nuclear cruise-missiles and other technology jump-started. Also, those hulls, if ever started, would make nifty amphibious control ships.
BTW, Eck, it was a torpedo from a Swordfish off HMS Victorious. The most amusing thing was that they worked because they were mostly fabric and wire…the bullets and such just wizzed through without causing damage.
Will they be designated BCS as in Big Crappy Ships ?
This is Miller,Vought et al letting tRump fingerpaint while they do as much damage as they can in his shadow
CP88, the Swordfish from Arc Royal were part of that.
As to building a larger capital ship, not a great idea. Better a Carrier.
Eck!
Video of the Swordfish and its sinking the battleships of the Italian Mediterranean Fleet
https://youtu.be/CeSeNW2R6SY
You are correct, it was an Ark Royal torpedo with the old contact detonator…sorry.
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