Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: One can love him or hate him, but can’t ignore him!
The latest rabbit he has produced from his Santa Claus cap indicates it: the US President has named a new warship fleet after (Donald) Trump!
As he walked past a rendering of what he said was the “Trump Class” USS Defiant, next to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, he declared on Monday that these ships will be “some of the most lethal surface warfare ships” and “the largest battleship in the history of our country.”
With this boast, he announced the new class of heavily armed warships and named them after himself — an honor usually reserved for leaders who have left office, the media reported on Tuesday.
Two of the “Trump Class” ships will be built initially, but the number could grow substantially, he said, flanked with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Navy Secretary John Phelan, with images of the planned high-tech vessels showcased on stands nearby.
Asked if the planned warships are a counter to the USA’s rival China, Trump declined to specify, instead saying: “It’s a counter to everybody, it’s not China. We get along great with China.”
He said the ships will weigh between 30,000 and 40,000 tons and will be armed with missiles and guns as well as weaponry still in development, including lasers and hypersonic missiles. They will also be capable of carrying nuclear weapons in the form of the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile.
The “Trump Class” ships will be substantially larger than existing US destroyers and cruisers, but the projected displacement cited by the President is somewhat smaller than the last American battleships — from the Iowa Class — which were retired in the 1990s.
Trump—who has often complained about the ‘appearance’ of US ships—said he would be involved in the design along with the Navy “because I’m a very aesthetic person.”
His announcement came just days after the US Navy publicized plans for another new class of ships — frigates known as the FF(X) that it said will “complement the fleet’s larger, multi-mission warships.”
Phelan said the FF(X) will be based on an existing design from shipbuilder HII that is already in use by the US Coast Guard, and that the aim is for the first of the new frigates to be in the water by 2028.
The new frigate plans were announced after Phelan said last month that four of six planned ships from the Constellation class of frigates would be cancelled, while two that are already under construction are “under review.”
The US has fallen significantly behind China in terms of the number of ships in its Navy. A report to Congress earlier this year noted that US military officials and other observers are concerned by the pace of China’s shipbuilding efforts.
“We’re going to restore America as a major shipbuilding power,” Trump said on Monday, adding: “We’re going to ensure the USA has the most powerful fleet anywhere in the world, and long into the future, with battleships helping lead the way.”
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