The U.S. Navy on Monday released a 30-year shipbuilding strategy that calls for $68.5 billion in new spending and officially confirms that President Trump’s new “Trump-class” battleships will be nuclear-powered and armed with hypersonic missiles and high-energy lasers.
The fiscal 2027 Shipbuilding Plan represents a nearly 57 percent increase over last year’s budget request. It asks Congress to fund 34 manned warships and five unmanned combat platforms by the end of next year.
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao called the announcement a turning point. “The United States is at a strategic inflection point. Rebuilding American maritime dominance requires urgency, accountability and sustained commitment,” Cao said in a statement. “This Shipbuilding Plan provides a roadmap for the Golden Fleet to grow a larger, more capable Fleet while revitalizing the industrial base, strengthening our workforce, and ensuring our Sailors and Marines have the platforms they need to defeat any adversary for decades to come.”
Over the next five years, the plan calls for building 122 additional ships and 63 unmanned systems. The list includes 10 Virginia-class attack submarines, five Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, seven Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and 23 Medium Landing Ships for the Marine Corps.
The Trump-class battleships will be nuclear powered with “longer endurance, higher speed, and advanced weapons systems.” Each ship is estimated to cost $17.5 billion, though the Navy said that figure is still being refined. The announcement settles months of uncertainty: as recently as April, then-Navy Secretary John Phelan said nuclear propulsion was unlikely for the new class. Trump fired Phelan in April and replaced him with Cao.
The Navy currently operates 291 battle force ships, 64 fewer than the 355 mandated by law. Despite shipbuilding budgets doubling over the past 20 years, the fleet has barely grown.
The plan also targets chronic contractor problems. It proposes requiring shipbuilders to invest their own capital in infrastructure as a condition of receiving Navy contracts, a direct response to years of cost overruns and schedule delays. The report points to recent government-funded wage increases at domestic factories as a model for reducing worker attrition and improving productivity.
Where domestic manufacturing falls short, the plan calls for leaning on allied nations to build auxiliary vessels such as logistics ships.
