Trump has suggested steam catapults every year since 2017, saying digital systems are too ‘complicated’
After nearly a decade of loudly complaining about the fact that modern US aircraft carriers use electromagnetic systems to launch fighter jets instead of steam-powered catapults, Donald Trump has directed the Pentagon to redesign a new aircraft carrier to replace the modern system with the old-fashioned catapults he prefers.
Trump signed a national security memorandum on Thursday directing the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and the acting navy secretary, Hung Cao, to make the change he has had his heart set on since at least 2017, when he first described his idea to Time magazine.
The memorandum gives the Pentagon leaders 60 days to come up with “a plan on the required measures to replace the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Weapons Elevators with steam and hydraulic systems for the construction of” the USS Doris Miller, a Ford-class aircraft carrier, which is already two years behind schedule.
Looks like they’ve already issued a contract to fix it so it would appear it’s entirely possible and someone just fucked up the requirements/design first time around.
Absolutely wild that this wasn’t part of the original design. I can turn off power to my stove without shutting down my whole house, but the US Navy can’t independently power launch systems.
You’d think the United States would take great care when designing their main tools for global power projection. And you’d probably be right; I can imagine that countless hours were invested into determining where the parts get built and which senators get to politically benefit from that. Technological details don’t really matter; at worst you can just turn flaws into lucrative followup contracts for companies in the stock portfolios of top politicians.
Ding, ding. Yeah. Happens with Government contracts. Corners get cut. Just a symptom of … gestures towards Washington DC