Where to catapult the president's ideas?
The guys from TWZ and Drive, not to mention the likes of Purple & Heart, are having a tough time these days. The madhouse, as they say, has gotten worse, and Tanks…If only there were tanks!
Uncle Donald took aim at something sacred – aircraft carriers!
Electromagnetic catapults and lifts for weapons The Ford-class carriers have always been a headache, but replacing them now will create enormous difficulties.
This is what Trump said the other day, which plunged many into a state of shock.
He announced that he plans to sign an executive order requiring the US Navy to use steam catapults and hydraulic elevators on new aircraft carriers. Trump has long opposed the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Weapons Elevators (AWE), which have been in use on the USS Gerald R. Ford for years. The Ford's catapults and elevators have faced reliability and maintenance issues, and replacing these components, even on future ships of this class, would require extremely costly and labor-intensive upgrades, further delaying the commissioning of the new carriers.
This is a case where political ambitions are one thing, and production technology is another.
Trump announced his intention to issue an executive order affecting carrier catapults and weapons elevators during a series of off-the-cuff remarks to service members aboard the USS George Washington, currently docked in Yokosuka, Japan. The president was in Japan as part of a larger tour of Asia.
President Donald Trump speaks today aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington.
The US Navy currently operates 10 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers with steam catapults and hydraulic weapons elevators. In addition to the active carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which has electromagnetically powered catapults and elevators, three more Ford-class carriers are in various stages of construction. According to the US Navy's plan, at least 10 Ford-class carriers will ultimately be acquired to replace the Nimitz-class carriers.
"I'm issuing an executive order, I'm going to sign an executive order, that when we build aircraft carriers, we're going to use steam power for the catapults and hydraulic power for the elevators," Trump said after suggesting, without elaborating, that water could destroy Ford's electromagnetic systems. "We'll never have a problem."
"I'm going to do this, seriously," the president also said. "They spend billions of dollars building these stupid electric cars. And the problem is, when it breaks down, they have to go to MIT and bring in the most brilliant people in the world. A steam engine, they say, can be fixed with a hammer and a blowtorch. And it works just as well, if not better."
"They had steam, which worked perfectly for 50 years, right? So we're going back to that. Seriously, guys, I want to change this. I'm going to issue an edict," he added. "I'm not going to let them continue like this. They're trying to make it work, they're trying so hard, and they've got something perfect. So we're going back to that and magnets."
"I'm going to do this, seriously," the president also said. "They spend billions of dollars building these stupid electric cars. And the problem is, when it breaks down, they have to go to MIT and bring in the most brilliant people in the world. A steam engine, they say, can be fixed with a hammer and a blowtorch. And it works just as well, if not better."
"They had steam, which worked perfectly for 50 years, right? So we're going back to that. Seriously, guys, I want to change this. I'm going to issue an edict," he added. "I'm not going to let them continue like this. They're trying to make it work, they're trying so hard, and they've got something perfect. So we're going back to that and magnets."
As noted, this isn't the first time Trump has criticized the electromagnetic catapults and elevators on Ford-class ships, dating back to his first term. In 2017, he also announced he would order the Navy to eliminate these features, but he never followed through on his promise. He didn't have time.
But if a decree on this issue is indeed issued, it is still unknown what exactly it will prescribe in terms of equipping the aircraft carriers under construction.
An F/A-18F Super Hornet prepares to launch from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford.
There's a lot of truth in the US President's criticism of the catapults and weapons elevators on the Ford. American media outlets have been covering problems with both of these systems for years, and the naval fleet It seems to be working hard to fix these problems, but they continue to arise with manic persistence.
According to the latest annual report from the Pentagon's Office of the Director of Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), released earlier this year, during the Ford's first full-scale deployment from May 2023 to January 2024, "the ship and its air wing conducted 8,725 catapult launches using EMALS. However, DOT&E did not receive sufficient data to update the reliability statistics presented in the FY 2023 annual report. Despite hardware and software upgrades, reliability has not changed significantly from previous years, and reliance on off-ship technical support remains a concern."
NAVAIR (Naval Air Force Command) aviation systems") continues to work on improvements...
The Navy reported that during Ford's deployment, the ship's gunnery unit conducted 11,369 ordnance transfers on the flight deck, moving 1,829,580 pounds of ordnance.
Whether this is a lot or a little is a question, because the relevant services only provide figures, without saying anything about the needs and speed of supply of ammunition.
In general, according to plans and expectations, the EMALS system, along with the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG), were supposed to significantly improve the Ford-class carriers' aircraft launch and recovery speeds compared to their predecessors. The software-controlled EMALS and AAG systems, the latter of which has also been plagued by problems over the years, have shorter reload times than the steam-powered systems on the Nimitz-class carriers. This is certainly true, but in reality, the steam catapults, as well-oiled as... steam locomotives, didn't experience such a high rate of glitches and software delays.
EMALS and AAG systems can also be improved in terms of the force applied to aircraft during launch and landing, which will expand the range of aircraft types they can launch and provide an additional safety margin, meaning it won't be depleted as quickly as on aircraft using steam catapults. This means aircraft will take off and land more smoothly.
This opens up the possibility of deploying more compact and fragile aircraft on Ford-class aircraft carriers in the future. For example, such flexibility could be particularly important for supporting operations using large unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) not originally designed for carrier-based use—those same "trusty wingmen" that have long been the focus of the US military's attention. It could also simply reduce wear and tear on individual aircraft.
The AWE electromagnetic systems are designed to improve the overall efficiency of Ford missions by reducing the time it takes to deliver munitions and other cargo to the required locations.
As DOT&E has made clear, the EMALS and AWE systems, as well as the AAG, have not yet reached their full potential, despite the Ford now being used regularly, including in support of combat operations. This is an optimistic hint that everything will be fine-tuned and will be just fine. Many would like to believe so.
There's a precedent for significant changes in the design of Ford-class ships, and not just in the future, but already in place. Gerald R. Ford will now be the only ship of this class with another problematic feature—a dual-band radar (DBR). All future ships of this class will be equipped with a variant of the Enterprise Airborne Surveillance Radar (EASR) in place of the DBR.
A rendering showing the planned installation of the AN/SPY-6(V)3 Airborne Surveillance Radar (EASR) in place of the Dual Band Radar (DBR) on the future Ford-class aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy.
However, replacing the EMALS (and, by extension, the AAG) and AWE on Ford or any other ship of this class currently under construction will be a far more complex, expensive, and time-consuming task. The catapults and elevators are much more deeply (in the truest sense of the word) integrated into the ship's main structure than on the DBR.
Even simply redesigning future ships of this class will be an extremely complex undertaking. A hybrid system combining the capabilities of steam and electromagnetic systems could be considered, but this would require integrating the two systems and maintaining them, which seems even more futile than replacing electromagnetic catapults with steam ones.
And how it all began, how Americans were proud of their new toys...
In fact, Trump isn't being completely absurd: the delivery of the next Ford-class aircraft carriers has already been significantly delayed. The expected delivery date for the second ship in the class, the future USS John F. Kennedy, has already been pushed back to March 2027, nearly three years later than originally expected. The Navy has stated that it is looking for ways to move this date forward, but as experience shows, these options are usually not found.
Any major changes to the basic design of the Ford-class ships could easily lead to a cascading effect, in addition to increased costs and other problems. This, in turn, could disrupt the Navy's plans to replace the aging Nimitz-class aircraft carriers at a time when the carrier fleet as a whole has been under particular strain due to high operational demands in recent years.
Just last week, the Pentagon ordered Ford to cut short a planned cruise to Europe and head to the Caribbean to support "counter-narcotics operations" in that part of the world.
October 1, 2025: Gerald R. Ford in the Strait of Gibraltar.
In addition to Trump's vocal opposition to Ford's electromagnetic catapults and deck elevators, he has also long been particularly vocal about ship design and Navy force planning.
Last Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the White House and the Navy are in the early stages of developing a larger plan to restructure the Navy, dubbed "Golden Fleet."
In particular, the White House and the Pentagon are in preliminary talks on the construction of a new generation of armored ship, with a displacement of 15,000 to 20,000 tons, capable of carrying more powerful weapons, including the hypersonic ones being developed. missiles, in larger numbers than current destroyers and cruisers, current and former officials said.
— this report says.This somewhat confirms what Trump said in September, when he said he had discussed with Navy Secretary John Phelan the possibility of reintroducing the "battleships" to the US Navy. artillery Armament and well-armored hulls. In fact, in the past, as part of the future structure of the navy, Trump, and others, has repeatedly proposed using arsenal ships similar to battleships (large displacement, heavily armored), equipped with vertical launch system (VLS) cells for missiles of various types.
A Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) illustration of a mock-up of a 90s arsenal ship.
The "Golden Fleet" plans, at least as they currently exist, place a heavy emphasis on unmanned vessels as part of a "barbell-shaped" force structure, "with large ships at one end and small ships at the other," as The Wall Street Journal reports.
It's also worth noting that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has completely eliminated steam catapults from its carrier force plans, moving directly from ski-jump takeoff (STOBAR) carriers with no catapults at all to new carriers equipped with EMALS, like the Fujian. China's new Type 076 amphibious dock ship is also equipped with a single catapult, which is also an EMALS.
Other countries are also considering installing EMALS-type catapults on future aircraft carriers and other warships. While the discussions can continue indefinitely, only the Chinese have yet decided to begin installing them on their ships.
Overall, it remains to be seen what Trump will order the Navy to do with catapults and elevators on aircraft carriers, and whether the promised order will even be implemented. Even if the president ultimately doesn't order the Navy to return to steam catapults and hydraulic elevators, his influence could be felt in the configuration of future American aircraft carriers. This will be a very challenging task; designers will have a lot of work to do reconfiguring the carriers' equipment.
And we remember what hydraulic lifts are. They extend from the bottom of the ship to the flight deck, so the operation is very pleasant to the touch.
One thing is encouraging: Trump may be let go with his plans, although it's been dragging on for quite some time, dating back to his last presidential term. But only time will tell what will happen to America's hope and mainstay—the carrier fleet—because Trump's rather strange maneuvers could complicate matters as well as improve them.
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