The U.S. Navy’s first Trump-class battleship, USS Defiant, could cost about $23 billion to build, with the full 15-ship class projected to cost about $275 billion.
Cost estimates for the planned 270-metre, 35,000-ton class of warships have just been produced by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in a report examining the potential implications for America’s shipbuilding industry.
The nuclear-powered Trump-class vessels would be the most heavily armed surface combatants ever built, with an on-board arsenal including nuclear-armed missiles; hypersonic missiles; antiair, land-attack, and antiship missiles; and lasers.
The warships could also feature a rail gun, a still-in-development weapon firing non-explosive projectiles at hypersonic speeds with magnets. The finished vessels would be more than three times the size of Arleigh-Burke-class destroyers and over twice as large as Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyers.
The recently produced 2027 shipbuilding plan sets out a schedule for the construction of 15 ships over the next 30 years, with work on the first platform due to start in 2028. Building work on future ships in the class would then be due to begin roughly every other year until the mid-2050s.
However, only one domestic shipyard, HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding, is certified for nuclear-powered surface ships. As per the CBO: “Newport News Shipbuilding is behind schedule on constructing three aircraft carriers, as well as many submarines.
“Adding the final assembly of a nuclear-powered battleship to the shipyard’s workload could lengthen the delays for those programmes, in addition to delaying the construction of the battleship itself.”
The CBO’s report also noted: “Despite plans for its construction to start in 2028, the battleship is in the early stages of its design, and many uncertainties could affect the program’s ultimate cost.”
- You can read more details on the Congressional Budget Office website
