Trump Class Battleship: Why the Navy is Bringing Back Battleships. On December 22, 2025, President Donald Trump unveiled the Trump-class battleship—a 35,000-ton guided missile warship pitched as the most ambitious U.S. naval construction effort since WWII. The lead ship, USS Defiant (BBG-1), is described as a next-generation missile battleship / arsenal ship built for hypersonic strike, long-range precision fires, and high-end Pacific naval warfare.
In this video, we break down the Trump-class battleship concept, its claimed role in U.S. Navy force structure, how it compares to the Iowa-class battleships, and what it would mean for shipbuilding capacity, fleet modernization, and China’s naval expansion.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS VIDEO ✓ Why the U.S. Navy is returning to the battleship concept after decades ✓ Trump-class vs Iowa-class: size, weapons, mission, survivability, and relevance ✓ How Mk 41 VLS, hypersonic missiles, and “arsenal ship” thinking change naval power ✓ The role of railguns and directed energy weapons (lasers) in future surface combatants ✓ The strategic context: China Navy, shipyard throughput, and Pacific deterrence ✓ Whether the program’s timeline, funding, and industrial base realities support execution ✓ The Golden Fleet initiative and what it signals about a U.S. shipbuilding revival
WHY THIS MATTERS This announcement arrives amid intensifying debate over fleet size, missile capacity, and whether the U.S. Navy needs more VLS cells at sea—faster—than traditional destroyer/frigate production can deliver. If the Trump-class concept moves forward, it could reshape how the U.S. fields sea-based strike, distributed lethality, and high-volume missile fires in a peer competition environment.
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