Trump announces plans for new navy warships to be known as ‘Trump-class’

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. Donald Trump has announced plans for the US navy to build a new generation of warships - known as “Trump-class”. Donald Trump announces the navy's ‘Golden Fleet’, at Mar-a-lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday.Photograph: Jessica Koscielniak/Reuters A concept rendering of the proposed Trump class USS Defiant is displayed as at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images The ships will be bigger, faster and a hundred times more powerful than any previous US-built warship, the president said on Monday. The project will begin with construction of two such battleships and eventually be expanded to 20 to 25 new vessels. John Phelan, the navy secretary, added : “Our adversaries will know, when the Trump-class USS Defiant appears on the horizon, American victory at sea is inevitable.” Past battleship classes were typically named after US states. But Trump, whose name already adorns many hotels and golf clubs, is currently on what critics describe as a narcissistic spree. Earlier this month his administration renamed the US Institute of Peace in Washington after him. Last week the Trump-appointed board of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington voted to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center and a sign was added, despite the move requiring congressional authorisation. Monday’s announcement came at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, where three posters on easels displayed potential images a new “Trump class” battleship called the USS Defiant. Phelan told reporters: “The future Trump-class battleship, the USS Defiant, will be the largest, deadliest and most versatile and best-looking warship anywhere on the world’s oceans. I want to thank the president for his vision to make this game-changing capability for the United States navy.” “The Iowa was designed to go on the attack with the biggest guns and that’s exactly what will define the Trump-class battleships: offensive firepower from the biggest guns of our era. This ship isn’t just to swat the arrows. It is going to reach out and kill the archers.” Like Trump, Phelan approvingly cited Victory at Sea, a 1950s TV series about naval combat during the second world war. “Now this new battleship will command everything from warships to drones and everything in between,” he said. “We’re going to make battle groups great again. ” Historically, the term battleship has referred to a huge, heavily armored vessel armed with massive guns designed to bombard other ships or targets ashore. This type of ship was most prominent during the second world war when the biggest of the US battleships, the Iowa-class, were roughly 60,000 tons. After the war, the battleship’s role in modern fleets diminished rapidly in favour of aircraft carriers and long-range missiles. The US navy did modernise four Iowa-class battleships in the 1980s by adding cruise missiles and anti-ship missiles, along with modern radars, but by the 1990s all four were decommissioned. Trump said on Monday: “We envision that these ships will be the first of...

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