After nearly a decade of loudly complaining about modern US aircraft carriers using electromagnetic systems to launch fighter jets instead of steam-powered catapults, President Donald Trump has directed the Pentagon to redesign a new aircraft carrier to replace the modern system with the old-fashioned catapults he prefers.
Trump signed a national security memorandum on Thursday directing the defense secretary and acting Navy secretary to make the change he has had his heart set on since at least 2017, when he first described his idea to Time magazine.
The memorandum gives Pentagon leaders 60 days to come up with “a plan on the required measures to replace the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Weapons Elevators with steam and hydraulic systems” for the construction of the USS Doris Miller, a Ford-class aircraft carrier already two years behind schedule.
Trump’s Longstanding Complaint
“You know the catapult is quite important,” Trump told Time magazine in 2017, recounting a conversation he said he had with an unnamed Navy officer.
“Sir, this is our digital catapult system,” Trump recalled. “It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out.”
A Guardian review of Trump’s public remarks shows that he has retold that story, with variations, every year since 2017.
In 2018, Trump brought it up during a Thanksgiving Day phone call with the commanding officer of the USS Ronald Reagan. In 2019, he recounted his conversation with the “catapulter” to Republican donors at a fundraiser. He repeated it on the campaign trail in Iowa in 2023 and at one of his final campaign events before the 2024 election.
After he returned to office in 2025, Trump brought up steam catapults during the swearing-in of Tulsi Gabbard as his director of national intelligence and again in remarks to the crew of the USS George Washington.
The Navy’s Resistance
According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the order, senior US Navy and industry leaders have resisted the move due to the enormous expense of tearing out such a complex system integral to the design of the latest aircraft carriers.
General Atomics, the company that builds the electromagnetic aircraft launch system for the Ford-class carriers, said Trump’s decision to revert to steam “warrants careful reconsideration.” The company told the Journal its work on the new ship is nearly 50% complete and “changing course now would introduce significant cost, schedule, and integration risks.”
Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and a former astronaut, was blunt in his reaction: “Donald Trump should stick to what he knows best – ballrooms, bankruptcy, and bullshit.”
The Bottom Line
President Trump has ordered the Pentagon to redesign the USS Doris Miller aircraft carrier to use steam catapults instead of modern electromagnetic systems. Trump has complained about the digital catapults since 2017, calling them “too complicated” and praising steam as easier to fix. The order comes as the carrier is already two years behind schedule, and industry leaders warn of high cost and integration risks.
