The president’s memorandum also directed the Department of War to construct a new naval shipyard and a component repair center for submarines.
President Donald Trump ordered the Navy on Aug. 13 to return to using steam catapults to launch fighter jets from aircraft carriers instead of using the newer electromagnetic catapult system.
The president’s national security memorandum targets the electromagnetic catapult system used on Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The order came as part of a memorandum aimed at rebuilding the Navy and America’s shipbuilding industrial base.
Prior to the Aug. 13 memorandum, Trump had called for the Navy to stop including the electromagnetic launch system on new ships being built. He said the newer technology was more expensive and less effective than traditional steam catapults, which have been used on aircraft carriers for over 50 years.
Thursday’s memorandum directed the Navy to replace the advanced electromagnetic aircraft launch systems and advanced weapons elevators with steam and hydraulic systems as part of the construction of the USS Doris Miller. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao were given 60 days to develop a plan to replace the systems.
The USS Doris Miller is being built by Huntington Ingalls, the largest military shipbuilding company in the United States and the main contractor for Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers.
The Navy began using electromagnetic catapults to launch fighter jets on Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers after conducting the first successful test of the technology on one of the aircraft carriers in 2015.
When the newer technology was introduced, the Navy said the electromagnetic system delivered improvements in system maintenance, increased efficiency and reliability, higher-launch energy capacity, and more accurate end-speed control.
However, Trump criticized the Navy’s electromagnetic launch system for fighter jets as too costly and complicated, at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit in July.
“Billions of dollars more they spent on electric catapults, and they’re not good,” he said. They’re not nearly as good, too complex.”
In a fact sheet accompanying Thursday’s memorandum, the White House said the War Department would also be taking steps to address “critical long-term issues” in the Navy’s shipbuilding and repair programs.
