This is all over the news, so I’m not going to repeat the well researched article from theWarZone.com regarding Donald Trump’s announcement of two 30-40,000 ton warships, which won’t begin construction until the early 2030s.
Trump appears unaware that he is reprising the failed Zumwalt-class destroyer concept - so expensive, long in development and poorly armed that only 3 were built.
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| image: USN, via twz.com --- |
More information will come to light as this program expands, but the new BBG(X) project will replace the current DDG(X) program, which replaced the CG(X) project that ran from 2001 to 2020. The US Navy has been trying to procure a major surface combatant class to replace the retiring Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers for 25 years, none of which have come to fruition, while the Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyers are new boats built on a maxed-out, forty-year-old hull design.
While the USN does not need two gold-plated battleships in the 2030s that will be too expensive to operate and too politically glamorous to get in harms way, like the Russian Kirov-class showboats missile cruisers, the USN does need a major surface combatant with a high VLS capacity, and integrated command systems for fleet operations, to act as the core node of a surface task group escorting a carrier or amphibious group, and the Trump-class, which is a multi-billion dollar vanity project by a president who’s ego is bigger than the Death Star, may eventually emerge as a sensible 20,000+ ton surface combatants in the USN.
On December 27, 2025, here 6:48 in and above, Retired Navy Commander Bobby Jones very clearly states why Trump's Zumwalt 2.0 vanity project will not work.
6 comments:
Merry Christmas to all!
Everybody wants more VLS capacity for their ships. The German Navy has a special plan: small unmanned arsenal ships: https://www.hartpunkt.de/large-remote-missile-vessels-deutsche-marine-will-unbemannte-arsenalschiffe-beschaffen/
Regards,
MHalblaub
A delayed Christmas present for the US military industrial complex:
Trump Unveils New Battleship Class; Proposed USS Defiant
Will Be Largest U.S. Surface Combatant Since WWII:
https://news.usni.org/2025/12/22/trump-unveils-new-battleship-class-proposed-uss-defiant-will-be-largest-u-s-surface-combatant-since-wwii
https://www.twz.com/sea/what-we-know-about-the-trump-class-battleship
Frigate update:
Navy’s New Frigate Will Not Have A Vertical Launch System
For Missiles:
https://www.twz.com/sea/navys-new-frigate-will-not-have-vertical-launch-systems-for-missiles
Merry Christmas MHalblaub (Matthias :)
The faster speed of the Supersonic Strike Missile (3SM) "Tyrfing", at Mach 2 to 3, compared to the subsonic Tomahawk may be a big advantage in a anti-ship shootout - against the Russians - with their hypersonic (Mach 5) missiles.
I wonder if Germany's "12 Large Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (LUUVs)" mentioned at https://www.hartpunkt.de/large-remote-missile-vessels-deutsche-marine-will-unbemannte-arsenalschiffe-beschaffen/ would look like Australia's GHOST SHARKs https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2024/04/australia-got-new-sub-drone-far-faster-us-navy-could-have-company-says/395949/
Cheers Pete
A great article Shawn
Have a Happy 2026.
May the US Midterm Elections, on November 3, 2026, mark a great setback for Trump in Congress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections
Cheers Pete
Happy New Year, Pete!
I'm not sure what type of LUUV German Navy is looking for but here is an outline:
https://www.bundeswehr.de/resource/blob/140478/ced16e7db8129001e1f020424a617d4e/ft-uuv-data.pdf
Maybe BlueWhale
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Whale_(UUV)
or Australian Speartooth
I heard Speartooth would make some noise at certain frequencies so it was disqualified ;-)
Best regards,
MHalblaub
Happy New Year MHalblaub (Matthias :)
The German-Israeli Blue Whale https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Whale_(UUV) is the right dimensions at 10.9m long to fit in a standard shipping container (12.2m Long x 2.44m Wide x 2.59m High).
To fit in a shipping container is important for all mid sized UUVs. So Australia's Ghost Shark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Shark_(submarine) and UK's Excalibur https://www.janes.com/osint-insights/defence-news/defence/uks-submarine-delivery-agency-hands-excalibur-xluuv-over-to-royal-navy are the right length and have a square shaped "hull" to maximize their fit in a shipping container. This information came from H. I. Sutton.
Cheers Pete
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