With the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford finally heading home after what has become the longest U.S. Navy carrier deployment since the Vietnam War, senior Navy leaders are now openly questioning whether the fleet can continue sustaining its current wartime operational tempo.
During a recent Military Officers Association of America forum, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman said the service is reassessing how to maintain a fighting force after Ford spent more than 300 days deployed across multiple theaters during a period that included operations in Venezuela, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and Iran.
USS Ford Aircraft Carrier U.S. Navy Photo
(April 14, 2018) An MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the “Chargers” of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 14, prepares to onload cargo during a replenishment-at-sea between the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) and the fleet replenishment oiler USNS Henry J. Kaiser (T-AO 187). John C. Stennis is underway with Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 9 conducting routine, tailored ships training availability and final evaluation problem. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class William Ford/Released)
The debate is occurring just as the Navy confirms that the future Trump-class battleship, designated BBG(X), will be nuclear-powered.
The Trump-class is being increasingly pitched as a symbolic return of the battleship, as well as a response to the growing strategic problem that is becoming increasingly visible across the fleet: existing destroyers and carriers are being stretched across too many simultaneous crises while operating in increasingly missile-saturated environments.
The Navy describes a future vessel as a nuclear-powered guided-missile battleship, or BBGN, intended to provide greater endurance and higher sustained speed in its newly released 30-year shipbuilding plan.
The vessel is also described as having sufficient electrical power to support next-generation weapons such as lasers and railguns. The ship is projected to displace between 30,000 and 40,000 tons, potentially making it one of the largest surface combatants ever built outside aircraft carriers.
Trump-Class Battleships Coming: Navy Returning to Nuclear Surface Combatants
The Navy has not operated nuclear-powered surface combatants since the retirement of the Virginia-class nuclear cruisers and USS Long Beach decades ago. Trump-class changes that entirely. According to the Navy’s May 2026 shipbuilding blueprint, the service intends to procure 15 Trump-class battleships through 2055, with the first ship currently projected for procurement in Fiscal Year 2028.
Current cost estimates already place the lead ship above $17 billion, while the first three vessels are projected to cost approximately $43.5 billion combined. Huntington Ingalls Industries and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works are both involved in the design effort.
Trump-Class Battleship. Image Credit: White House.
Trump-Class Battleship. Image Credit: White House.
The Navy has also repeatedly said that the ship is not intended to replace the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer fleet.
Instead, the Trump-class appears intended to operate as a high-end, survivable command ship capable of long-range strike warfare, fleet air defense, command-and-control operations, and future directed-energy combat. It is a forward-looking ship envisioned as a platform for weapons that aren’t yet fully operational – and that marks a significant shift in naval thinking.
For years, the Navy focused heavily on distributing its lethality, using smaller surface combatants and unmanned systems designed to spread power across large areas.
But recent operations in the Middle East and Pacific appear to be pushing planners back toward large, survivable ships capable of sustaining operations for long periods without constantly depending on vulnerable logistics networks.
The ships will complement the next generation of aircraft carriers and their sixth-generation airwings.
How the Iran War Exposed Growing Fleet Strain
Ford’s deployment is arguably the clearest example of the strain currently being placed on the fleet. Since departing Norfolk in June 2025, the carrier has supported operations in multiple theaters before moving to the Middle East during Operation Epic Fury.
During deployment, the carrier has even suffered an onboard fire, plumbing failures, crew fatigue problems, and repeated operational extensions that keep putting pressure on a ship overdue for maintenance.
At one point during the conflict, the United States simultaneously surged three carrier strike groups into the CENTCOM region while also maintaining naval commitments in Europe and the Indo-Pacific.
Meanwhile, shipping instability in the Strait of Hormuz and continued threats in the Red Sea placed additional strain on destroyers, logistics vessels, escort vessels, and other nearby assets.
It is this operational environment that explains why the Navy is increasingly interested in a ship built around endurance and missile capacity rather than simply on fleet numbers.
Iowa-Class 5-Inch Guns. Image by Harry J. Kazianis/National Security Journal.
USS Iowa Opening Fire. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Unlike conventional destroyers, a nuclear-powered surface combatant could operate for extended periods without requiring regular refueling. That will become increasingly important in a future war where replenishment and support shops could become primary targets. Nuclear propulsion also provides vastly greater electrical generation capacity for systems the Navy considers essential to future warfare, including lasers, advanced radar arrays, electronic warfare suites, and, potentially, railguns.
The planned ships are also expected to carry large vertical launch missile batteries alongside Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic missiles and potentially nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missiles.
The Navy’s newly confirmed plan to build a fleet of 15 nuclear-powered Trump-class guided-missile battleships over the next three decades also comes as the service prepares to retire some of its most powerful Cold War-era warships.
According to the new 30-year shipbuilding plan released Monday, the Navy will begin retiring the first Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in 2030 and will also dismantle aging Ohio-class submarines and Nimitz-class carriers throughout the coming decade.
The same blueprint projects the procurement of the first Trump-class battleship beginning in Fiscal Year 2028, making the new nuclear-powered vessel a centerpiece of the Navy’s long-term effort to rebuild high-end surface combat power rather than simply maintain fleet numbers.
About the Author: Jack Buckby
Jack Buckby is a British researcher and analyst specializing in defense and national security, based in New York. His work focuses on military capability, procurement, and strategic competition, producing and editing analysis for policy and defense audiences. He brings extensive editorial experience, with a career output spanning over 1,000 articles at 19FortyFive and National Security Journal, and has previously authored books and papers on extremism and deradicalization.
