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US President Donald Trump recently unveiled plans to build a new Trump-class battleship. He called the ships “some of the most lethal” and promised that they would help the US maintain its military superiority and “strike fear into the hearts of America’s enemies.” However, analysts believe that the battleships are already seriously outdated.
Main theses:
- Analysts believe that the new battleship Trump is an outdated warship, as the last ships of this type were built over 80 years ago.
- Experts emphasize that the main military operations in the modern world are conducted using aircraft carriers and modern destroyers armed with long-range missiles, which casts doubt on the effectiveness of battleships.
Battleships are very outdated – experts' opinion
The last such ship was built over 80 years ago, and the US Navy decommissioned the last Iowa-class ships almost 30 years ago.
The publication emphasized that battleships have long given way to aircraft carriers and modern destroyers armed with long-range missiles.
Senior advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Mark Kansian, told reporters that there is no need to even discuss the new battleship that Trump wants to create. He is confident that this ship will never go to sea.
According to Kansian, developing a Trump-class battleship would take too long, cost too much, and conflict with the Navy's current firepower distribution strategy. He believes that a future administration will cancel the program before the first ship is launched.
Bernard Lu, a senior fellow at the Singapore School of International Studies named after S. S. Rajaratnam, has a different opinion. He characterized Trump's initiative as a “prestigious project.” He compared the design of the new American battleship to the Japanese super battleships of World War II, Yamato and Musashi, which were the largest ever built.
Lu added that the proposed battleship would have a displacement of over 35,000 tons and a length of over 255 meters, which is longer than two football fields.
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Hudson Institute senior fellow Brian Clark suggested that the new ship is more of a show of force than a real effective combat unit.