Everything New We Just Learned About The Trump Class Battleship Program

We are getting a clearer idea of how the Navy thinks it can best use the world's first new class of battleships since World War II.

This analysis is free, but with Premium Membership you get MORE. Join today.

by Joseph Trevithick and Hope Hodge Seck
April 24, 2026

Last December, President Donald Trump officially rolled out plans for the Trump class, the first of which is currently set to be named the USS Defiant, the world’s first new class of battleships since World War II. We just learned a lot more about them.

The Navy’s top leadership says they are working hard to avoid serious issues that have plagued previous shipbuilding efforts when it comes to the Trump class “battleship” program. Senior officials have focused, in particular, on the need to have a very firm design before any work on the large surface combatants, the first of which could cost a whopping $17 billion, actually begins. A lack of a finalized design, along with repeated changes to it along the way, contributed heavily to the demise of the Constellation class frigate last year.