Trump allows US Navy to build ships abroad, orders return to steam catapults on carriers

• President Trump orders the Navy to abandon electromagnetic catapults and return to steam catapults on the fourth Ford-class aircraft carrier, increasing costs.
• The Navy is now allowed to build ships overseas temporarily to speed up production, involving foreign shipbuilders with US investments.
• A fifth Navy shipyard will be established to boost repair capacity for submarines and aircraft carriers, as directed by the national security memorandum.

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump has allowed the navy to build ships overseas and ordered it to abandon a complex system for launching jet fighters from its aircraft carriers and instead return to using steam catapults, the White House said on Aug 13.

Trump signed a national security memorandum directing the change, which would require the fourth vessel in the Gerald R. Ford class of aircraft carriers to abandon the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) used on the first three vessels.

The design change is expected to cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Huntington Ingalls Industries is the primary contractor building Ford-class aircraft carriers. Its shares were up slightly in after-hours trading in New York.

As of March, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the lead ship in the new class of carriers, had completed 36,863 EMALS launches, according to Pentagon documents.

The design change will occur on the Doris Miller, the fourth ship in the planned Ford class. The keel for the Doris Miller is slated to be laid by the end of 2026, with delivery anticipated by the navy in early 2034.

Trump has frequently criticised the navy’s electromagnetic launch system as being more expensive and not as effective as steam catapults.

“Billions of dollars more they spent on electric catapults and they’re not good. They’re not nearly as good, too complex,” Trump said at a defence summit in Pennsylvania in July.

When the navy selected EMALS in 2009, it said it would lower overall life-cycle costs, require less maintenance than steam catapults and generate less physical stress on carrier-based aircraft.

The system, also selected by France’s navy, had initial troubles, but has since completed thousands of launches.

General Atomics, the maker of EMALS, said in a statement that the decision not to proceed with the system on the Doris Miller warranted “careful reconsideration”.

“With nearly 50 per cent of production complete, changing course now would introduce significant cost, schedule and integration risks,” General Atomics said.

The navy referred requests for comment to the White House.

The memo Trump signed also opens up the navy to having ships made overseas for the first time in decades.

Foreign shipbuilders who have made “substantial and durable investments” in US shipyards “will be temporarily permitted to build up to two ships in their parent shipyards that will be delivered to bridge gaps on a quick turnaround”, to supplement ships built in US shipyards.

Australian shipbuilder Austal said on Aug 11 that Hanwha Group had offered to buy its US operations for up to US$1.2 billion (S$1.54 billion) as the South Korean conglomerate seeks to expand in the American defence market.

Trump’s memo also instructed the secretary of defence to establish a fifth navy shipyard to increase submarine and aircraft carrier repair capacity. REUTERS