Recently, the announcement of "Trump-class" BBG USS Defiant started a bunch of analysts all with different ideas.
I am not a naval analyst. I am a bull**** detector. And I detect a huge amount of bull****. Thus the title here: it's either the best Trump joke ever, or this is the end of the US Navy as we know it. In other words, China won't destroy our navy in a conflict in the Pacific. We're doing it to ourselves.
Let's start with the joke part. Why do I think this is a joke?
* The class name. Everybody who knows navy knows, the first ship of the class is what the class is named after. So why is the ship called USS Defiant, but Trump-class? This is a press-release ship, vaporware. There is no real plan to design it, much less build it. It's not even a concept. It's a wishlist.
* There are currently NO SHIPYARD IN THE US capable of building this ship. That's right, NONE. You need to upgrade a few of the existing yards to even THINK about building them.
* The current form of this ship is VERY INEFFICIENT as a missile bank. It barely has more VLS cells than the retired Ticonderoga-class CG (guided missile cruiser), yet costs two to three times more, with presumably 2-3 times more crew, and probably takes 2-3 times longer to build... (see above) At this rate, even if we start upgrading the yards now, we won't see even the prototype until the 2030s as a hull, muchless commissioned and accepted into service.
* It doesn't address the problem of US Navy is being outnumbered on VLS cells by the Chinese Navy, i.e. PLAN (People's Liberation Army Navy), whose Type 55 "Destroyer" (which is larger than our Ticonderoga "cruisers") is already in service and already has nearly 100 VLS cells per ship. Remember, we're RETIRING Ticos. We barely have Arlieigh Burkes, We planned for 2 dozen Zumwalts. We got 3 instead. The Littoral combat ships are disasters. And we just CANCELLED Constellations.
But what if the Navy was serious, that they really intend to build this thing, by diverting all the money planned for Constellation and DDG(X) into this BBG, and the half-baked FF(X) idea, which is bolting some VLS cells onto the Coast Guard Legend-class cutters?
* It doesn't help (rehash of the last point), even if they find the budget, and Congress rubber-stamp the proposals, because, as mentioned, it's NOT an efficient missile platform. Adding the guns and whatnot doesn't help. This is a floating wishlist, as it can do a little of this, a little of that. It's a little of everything... master of none. It looks great ON PAPER, and it'll definitely sooth DJT's ego, but it doesn't help USN address the growing hull and VLS disparity between USN and PLAN.
* They actually said this will be the "best-looking" ship. No joke. and DJT himself even said he wants it that way because "I'm very aesthetic". Since when do warships care about "looking good"? This is just a concept rendering, Heck, it even has the front RAILGUN spitting flame like a conventional cannon!?! Not even the Iowa spit flame out the barrel! Huge plumes of smoke, sure... But this is official press release from the US Navy itself?!
* There doesn't seem to be any actual Navy people at the announcement (Hegseth doesn't count).
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