The top lawmaker on the House’s Navy acquisition oversight panel on Wednesday backed the Donald Trump administration’s plan to build a new fleet of battleships, calling the initiative a “great idea.”
Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Miss.), chair of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee also offered his support for the Trump administration’s recently announced plan to build the new eponymous BBG(X) battleship, with the president having detailed a vision for gun and missile-equipped platforms that are each “100 times more powerful than the Iowa class.”
“It’s going to look different,” Kelly said in remarks at the Surface Navy Association’s (SNA) annual symposium. “But it’s going to be able to project power, be mobile, not be a target and provide immense firepower in the ways that we need, whether that’s through drones, whether that’s through anti-missile defense, whatever that is”
The battleships are part of a new Golden Fleet plan to replace the Navy’s current 381-ship force structure. Kelly said the Golden Fleet plan “builds on a lot of different principles and tenants that we’re already using,” and said it could “in theory” support the Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative.
The 30,000 to 40,000 ton battleships – less than half the size of an aircraft carrier – are to carry the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile and are to serve as a command and control platform for drones and other ships.
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) CEO Chris Kastner, whose company has been tapped to work on BBG(X) along with General Dynamics (GD) Bath Iron Works, told reporters last week more details are expected from the Navy over the next 30 to 60 days on its plan to build the new BBG(X) battleship, to include the initial design schedule.
Both HII and GD currently produce the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and were working on the expected future DDG(X) destroyer before the Trump administration announced BBG(X) will supersede those plans.