Trump orders Navy to plan steam catapult return on future carriers

Full text

President Donald Trump has given the U.S. Navy and the Pentagon 60 days to draw up a plan for installing steam-powered catapults and hydraulic elevators on the future Ford class aircraft carrier USS Doris Miller . On and off for nearly a decade now , Trump has talked about ordering the Navy to abandon the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) catapults and Advanced Weapons Elevators (AWE) that are currently at the core of the Ford class design. The EMALS and AWEs have struggled with reliability and maintenance issues , but reverting back to steam and hydraulics on future ships in the class would require a major redesign. Such a costly and time-consuming process would risk creating new delays in the delivery of new carriers, which are already running years behind schedule , and could put the future fleet into crisis.

The directive regarding the catapults and weapons elevators on the future Doris Miller , which is also known by the hull number CVN-81, is contained in a larger memo President Trump sent out yesterday titled “Rebuilding the United States Navy and America’s Shipbuilding Industrial Base.” The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the memo, which also orders various parts of the U.S. government to take new steps to boost U.S. maritime industrial capacity. This includes plans for the establishment of a fifth government-owned naval shipyard, sourcing new ships from foreign shipbuilders and otherwise increasing cooperation with them, improvements to the management of spare parts for submarines, and a broad overhaul of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA).

President Donald Trump descends to the hangar deck of the US Navy’s Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS George Washington during a visit to the ship in October 2025. White House

The section on the catapults and weapons elevators is brief, but stands out as a particularly significant development. It reads, in full:

“Within 60 days of the date of this memorandum, the Secretary of War, in consultation with the Secretary of the Navy, shall provide to the President, through the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA), a plan on the required measures to replace the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Weapons Elevators with steam and hydraulic systems for the construction of CVN-81, including timelines and resourcing requirements.”

The Wall Street Journal ‘s report said that the expectation is that this redesign would carry over to all future Ford class carriers, but that the first three examples would retain their EMALSs and the AWEs. Currently, the USS Gerald R. Ford , hull number CVN-78, is the only ship in the class in operational service. The future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) is currently undergoing another round of sea trials ahead of its expected official delivery to the Navy later this year. The future USS Enterprise (CVN-80) is also now under construction, having been laid down in 2022.

A stock picture of the USS Gerald R. Ford . USN

Beyond Doris Miller , the Navy has assigned names to two more future Ford class carriers – USS William J. Clinton and USS George W. Bush – but has not yet placed formal orders for those ships. The service has stated plans to acquire at least 10 members of the Ford class, in total.

The Navy also has 10 older Nimitz class aircraft carriers, all of which are equipped with steam-powered catapults and hydraulic weapons elevators.

TWZ has reached out to the Navy for comment on yesterday’s memo from the White House

As noted, Trump has railed against the EMALS and AWEs for years now, tracing back to his first term in office. In 2017, he publicly said he would order the Navy to abandon those features , but never followed through. During a visit to the Nimitz class carrier USS George Washington in Japan in October 2025, he again said that he would force the Navy to go back to using steam and hydraulics on future carriers.

“They had steam, which worked so beautifully, and it has for 50 years, right? So we’re gonna go back. Seriously, fellas, I want to make that change. I’m gonna do an executive order,” Trump said last October. “I’m not going to let them continue to do this thing. They’re trying to make it work, they’re trying so hard, and they have something that’s perfect. So we’re going to go back on that and the magnets.”

As we have written in the past :

“In principle, EMALS, together with the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG), is supposed to give Ford class carriers a significant boost in capability over their predecessors when it comes to the speed at which they can launch and recover aircraft. The software-controlled EMALS and AAG, the latter of which has also faced issues over the years, have lower reset times than the steam-powered systems found on Nimitz class carriers.”

“The EMALS and AAG can also be more fine-tuned in terms of the forces they exert on aircraft during launch and recovery, expanding the range of types they can accommodate and adding additional margins of safety. This notably helps open the door for embarking smaller and more fragile types on Ford class carriers in the future. This flexibility could be particularly critical for supporting carrier-based drone operations down the line. Wear and tear on individual aircraft can also be reduced.”

“The electromagnetic AWEs are intended to further help improve the overall efficiency of flight operations on Ford by reducing the time it takes to get ordnance and other stores to where they need to go.”

At the same time, as we have repeatedly pointed out , Trump’s criticisms are grounded in very real problems that have plagued the catapults and weapons elevators on the Ford over the years. TWZ has covered the issues with both of these systems , as well as other long-troubled aspects of the ship’s design , in detail. The Navy has been working to mitigate these problems, but has continued to face hurdles. Maintenance demands and heavy reliance on contractors to perform that work remain particular challenges.

“The reliability and maintainability of CVN 78’s EMALS and AAG continue to adversely affect sortie generation and flight operations, which remains the greatest risk to demonstrating operational effectiveness and suitability in IOT&E [initial operational test and evaluation],” the Pentagon’s Office of the Director of Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) stated in an annual report covering developments in the 2025 Fiscal Year (FY25), which was released in March. “Data collected during CVN 78’s FY25 pre-deployment workup cycle indicate that EMALS reliability remains consistent with developmental and operational test data collected in FY23 and FY24. Engineering upgrades to hardware and software have produced gradual improvements in cumulative reliability and availability. Reliance on off-ship technical support remains a challenge. NAVAIR is continuing development on improvements.”

When it comes to the AWEs, “the Ford class has yet to build and transfer ordnance to the flight deck at rates reflective of the Design Reference Mission. DOT&E expects the sustained SGR [Sortie Generation Rate] live demonstration to be the first operationally representative demonstration of high ordnance throughput,” the report, which has since been taken offline , also said. “Of note, the crew is still reliant on off-ship technical support for correction of AWE hardware and software failures.”

The video below shows flight deck operations aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford in March 2026 while the carrier was supporting Operation Epic Fury against Iran.

The SGR live demonstration mentioned here was conducted in February of this year.

“While the Navy is still analyzing the data, preliminary reports from the Sortie Generation Rate test program show that the flight deck design in conjunction with EMALS and AAG have contributed to an increased sortie generation rate compared to that of a Nimitz class carrier,” the Navy subsequently declared. “As of today, these systems are operating as designed, and the Ford continues with scheduled mission tasking.”

“While operating in the Southern Command area of responsibility CVN 78 completed a successful four-day sustained Sortie Generation Rate demonstration in February,” according to a Modernized Selected Acquisition Report (MSAR) on the Ford class program that the Pentagon produced in April, but which was only released publicly more recently . “The event resulted in the collection of over 40,000 data points to support the modeling and simulation of the full 30-day Key Performance Parameter.”

“As of March 2026, 36,863 EMALS launches have been completed aboard CVN 78,” that same report also noted. “Logistics products are maturing and are being prioritized for high use components to support phased depot stand-up which commenced in FY 2022. Logistics contracts are in place with General

Atomics for EMALS sustainment support and interim spares.”

In April, then-Secretary of the Navy John Phelan also confirmed that a major review of the Ford class program , centered on planning for the future USS William J. Clinton and the USS George W. Bush , was underway. Questions were raised at that time about whether major changes could be on the horizon, including the potential cancellation of planned orders for more carriers in the class or a transition to a new design.

“Trust me, we measure and monitor a lot of things in the Navy, including that – the airframes and how that works. So I think it’s a function of just understanding it, for example, is the sortie rate generation that much greater? And then what are the cost implications of this electric catapult, and did it really generate the savings?” Phelan told TWZ and others at a roundtable on the sidelines of the Navy League’s Sea Air Space 2026 exposition. “You know, the Navy would like to say we’ve saved $5 billion in terms of savings in number [sic] of men and maintenance. I just need to check that back up, and that’s what I mean by that.”

“I think, like anything, it’s both understanding the cost-benefit analysis of it, because we really want to make sure we’ve got a good handle on the costs,” he added. “I think one of the things we have to do a better job of in the Navy is kind of what I call total cost of ownership. So what does it really cost to sustain and maintain these things? I think we do a reasonable job at that, to be honest. But the infrastructure needs on these are also costs you have to understand going in.”

Trump fired Phelan unexpectedly just days after he made these and other remarks at Sea Air Space 2026 . There have been reports that disagreements over separate plans for new Trump class battleships, specifically , as well as other more general friction within the Trump administration , factored into his sudden dismissal.

A rendering of the first planned Trump clsss battleship, to be named USS Defiant . USN

As mentioned, any plans now to eliminate the EMALS catapults and AWEs from the Ford class design, even just on future carriers like Doris Miller , would be a major undertaking. The core physical structure of the ship, as well as its power generation requirements and other key elements of the design, are heavily rooted in these features. All-new steam piping and the large piston systems, among other elements, would have to be installed in spaces not currently designed to accommodate them. The ship’s flight deck would have been reconfigured, as well.

As a result of the base design decisions, the nuclear reactor plant on the Ford class is also notably set up to generate less steam overall compared to the one on the Nimitz class, according to a past report from the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), an independent non-profit. All of this, in turn, raises additional questions about how much time and effort it would take to retrofit future Ford class carriers to use steam catapults, in particular.

General Atomics, the prime contractor behind the EMALS and the AAG, has unsurprisingly already come out against Trump’s new directive.

“The decision will have broader implications for carrier readiness, national security, and U.S. technological superiority, potentially creating opportunities for adversaries to close the capability gap,” the company said, according to The Wall Street Journal . “It also comes at a time when strengthening the U.S. supplier industrial base is a national priority, making workforce stability, production capacity, and the ability to sustain critical technologies more important than ever.”

It is worth noting here that China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) now has two ships with electromagnetic catapults, the Type 003 carrier Fujian and Type 076 amphibious assault ship Sichuan . The U.S. government previously approved the transfer of EMALS technology to India, which could make it way into the country’s future carrier INS Vishal . Other nations have also been considering EMALS-type catapults for future carriers and other naval vessels .

Official confirmation:

President Xi personally made the decision for the aircraft carrier Fujian to have the electromagnetic catapult, instead of the steam catapult that was originally designed to have.

At the end, the video shows the sled of the catapult coming to a full stop,… pic.twitter.com/RLCwgjhd7r

— Zhao DaShuai 东北进修 (@zhao_dashuai) November 7, 2025

Weighted carts catapult test on Type 076 LHD

three lines marked directly under and outside the wheels of the Red cart to ensure it is centered

the parallel alignment markings flanking the catapult slot serve as visual tips for precise positioning https://t.co/KJkC2ZrLgS pic.twitter.com/pZa0Vx56jG

— David Wang (@DavidWangPLA) August 1, 2026

Huntington Ingalls Industries, which builds the Ford class carriers through its Newport News Shipbuilding division in Virginia, said it would “work closely with the Navy to implement any potential changes to ships under construction,” according to that outlet. At the same time, there are serious questions now about that yard’s ability to meet current timelines for delivering new carriers, which have already been delayed repeatedly.

The Navy’s 2027 Fiscal Year budget proposal, released earlier this year, confirmed that the projected timeline for Doris Miller’ s delivery had slipped from 2032 to 2034. “The primary schedule driver for CVN-81 is the lack of available shipyard construction space for large assemblies due to delays on CVN-80,” a Navy official told Military Times back in May.

The Navy originally expected to receive Enterprise in 2028, but that timeline has since slipped to 2031. The future USS John F. Kennedy was also originally scheduled to be delivered back in 2022. All of these delays have come along with continued cost growth, as well.

“In December 2025, the Secretary of the Navy notified Congress he was increasing the Cost Limitation Baseline for CVN 79 from $12.936 billion to $13.529 billion,” according to the aforementioned April MSAR report. “The Cost Limitation Baseline for CVN 80 and CVN 81 remain unchanged at $13.529 billion and $14.016 billion respectively.”

As mentioned, Trump’s memo yesterday also focused heavily on further steps to address now long-standing concerns about U.S. naval shipbuilding capacity across the board . America’s specific ability to produce new nuclear-powered surface warships and submarines has now become even more of a focal point in these discussions with the addition of the plans for the Trump class battleships. In May, the Navy confirmed the Trump class warships will have nuclear propulsion using the same type of reactors developed for the Ford class.

Elements of the A1B nuclear reactors for the future USS Doris Miller seen prior to their delivery to the Navy. BWXT

The Navy has not acquired a new nuclear-powered surface combatant in decades . Newport News is currently the only U.S. shipyard producing nuclear-powered surface vessels of any kind, and is already heavily strained by current demands, which also include production of new non-nuclear warships. There is only one other yard in the country that produces nuclear-powered vessels of any kind, and is focused on submarine production.

In a time of peace, without all the threats and operational demands the United States is currently facing, or if there was any kind of surplus carrier capacity, making fundamental changes to the Ford class carrier program might very well have been a logical decision. However, all of this also comes at a time when the Navy’s operational carriers are experiencing exceptional pressure . The Nimitz class carrier USS Abraham Lincoln , which has been on a marathon deployment in the Middle East , has become something of a poster child for growing readiness concerns amid reports of severely flagging morale and mental health among the crew. The Navy is now moving to relieve Lincoln .

Still, this is a worrisome situation that has already been building for many years , due in large part to a succession of global crises , and has now been further exacerbated by the ongoing conflict with Iran. Even so, the Navy is trying to keep to its existing schedule for inactivating aging Nimitz class carriers, though the date for when the USS Nimitz is set to leave service has now been pushed back until next year . Retiring existing carriers will only create further strains if the arrival of new members of the Ford class continues to be pushed back.

With the various timelines the Ford class program is looking at now, whether the future Doris Miller or other forthcoming carriers ultimately make the switch back to steam-powered catapults and hydraulic weapons elevators very much remains to be seen. Trump’s current term will end in January 2029, at which point Doris Miller could easily still be in a relatively early stage of construction. Any incoming administration could revert back to the original plan for the ship’s configuration.

Congress could also step in sooner, including to block spending any funds on changing the Ford class design. There is already separate friction emerging between lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle and the White House over the Trump class battleship program, and concerns about how that could impact other naval shipbuilding priorities.

As it stands now, the Navy has roughly two months to at least devise a path forward for returning to steam-powered catapults and hydraulic weapons elevators on the future USS Doris Miller .

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

The post Bringing Back Steam Catapults On Carriers Is A Huge Risk appeared first on TWZ .