【Trump Insists on Steam Catapults — What’s the Catch?】 The Wall Street Journal exclusive: Trump has instructed the Navy to dismantle the complex system used for launching fighter jets from aircraft carriers, and switch instead to steam catapults.
Steam catapult technology has long faced opposition within the Navy, entails additional costs in the tens of billions of dollars, and lacks technical coherence.
Yet yesterday, the President signed a national security memorandum directing this change—meaning the electromagnetic catapult systems currently used on the Gerald R. Ford-class carriers will be dismantled.
U.S. Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, a veteran, exploded in anger, saying, “I’ve launched off the front of aircraft carriers hundreds of times. I hold a master’s degree in aerospace engineering and am a test pilot. Even so, I would never advise the Navy on how to design specific systems aboard ships. Trump should stick to what he’s best at: building ballrooms at the White House, declaring bankruptcy, and spouting nonsense.”
In fact, the U.S. Navy decided years ago to transition carriers from steam power to electric power—not just for the catapults, but for other systems as well.
But Trump, relying solely on his gut feeling, has decided the Navy must revert to the steam era, with retrofitting to steam catapults costing tens of billions of dollars and taking years.
This means a prolonged process—perhaps no real opportunity for such a change will ever arise, since merely going through the “request for proposals” and “bidding process” could take several years, by which time Trump will already have left the White House.
There is one exception: Trump awards no-bid contracts directly to his wealthy friends, enriching them—and suddenly, they all become experts on steam catapults.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1873464848499788/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.