Ships with hypersonic weapons, electric cannons and cruise missiles that, according to Donald Trump, will be controlled largely by Artificial Intelligence
US President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled a new “Trump class” of Navy warships, describing them as a superior warship to replace an “old, tired and obsolete” American fleet.
“They will help maintain American military supremacy, revive the American naval industry and inspire fear in America’s enemies around the world,” assured Trump when revealing the new category of ships from the Mar-a-Lago library.
Flanked by depictions of “Trump-class” warships at sea, Trump stressed that he would take an active role in their design. The president made the announcement this Monday afternoon, in Florida, with the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who is also the National Security Advisor.
The “Trump-class” ships will be part of the new “Golden Fleet” the president has ordered for the Navy, designed to better confront China and other adversaries and adhere more closely to Trump’s aesthetic standards.
“The US Navy will lead the design of these ships together with me, because I am a very aesthetic person,” Trump said.
Equipped with “the highest level weapons and missiles”, hypersonic weapons, rail cannons, cruise missiles and the “most sophisticated lasers in the world”, the new warships will be the largest ever built, Trump reiterated.
Each will weigh between 30,000 and 40,000 tons, he added, and will be built in the United States. “They will be very controlled by AI”, he emphasized, without giving explanations.
“We anticipate that these ships will be the first of a whole new class of ships to be produced in the coming years,” he said.
Initially, the Navy will build two “Trump-class” ships, quickly followed by eight more. Trump explained that he plans to build 20 to 25 ships, which, according to him, would become the “flag of the American naval fleet.”
He also said he would work to modernize American aircraft carriers as part of the U.S. Navy’s “Golden Fleet” upgrade.
Trump had previously complained about the appearance of some American ships.
“I’m not a fan of some of the ships that are being built. I’m a very aesthetic person and I don’t like some of the ships that are being built aesthetically,” Trump told an assembly of military personnel gathered at Quantico earlier this year.
“They say, ‘Oh, it’s stealthy’. I say that’s not being stealthy. You don’t need an ugly ship to say it’s stealthy,” he said.
Naming a class of ships after Trump could mean his name will also be affixed to a real ship – although such a move is likely years away.
Each class of ships represents a new design and is traditionally named after the first ship of that design produced. If Trump named the class after himself and the US Navy followed that convention, it would mean that the first ship built to the design announced by Trump this Monday would be the USS Trump.
However, posters for the event showed the ship as the USS Defiant.
The Navy announced last Friday that it would put into operation a new class of frigates, built in the United States, as part of the new fleet. Frigates were designed to protect sea lanes and larger ships.
The announcement comes amid massive US naval construction in the Caribbean Sea, as Trump exerts pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, including attempts to cut his oil revenues.
The Navy has been involved in a series of oil tanker interdictions in the Caribbean, although the US Coast Guard has taken the lead in operations. The US intercepted two oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela this month, and on Sunday the Coast Guard was in “active pursuit” of the massive oil tanker Bella 1 after it refused to submit to US seizure efforts.
The status of the chase was unclear Monday morning, but U.S. officials said the fact that the tanker — which was empty and heading to Venezuela to load oil — had turned around and was now sailing out of the country was in itself a success.
