Trump announced that he would completely abandon the electromagnetic catapult, stating that "electromagnetic catapults are too silly," and pointed out that it costs billions of dollars, saying, "if there is a fault, you have to fly the top experts from MIT to fix it, which is too absurd."

He said if the steam catapult has a fault, "you can fix it with a hammer and a welding gun, and the effect is not worse, even better," and said, "I love to see the spectacular scene of white steam spewing from the deck, how can electromagnetic catapults have such visual effects?"

Trump even praised the steam catapult as "effectively and stably used for over 50 years," which actually is not the first time Trump has proposed to abandon the electromagnetic catapult; as early as 2017, Trump had the idea of returning to the steam catapult.

The reason why Trump wants to return to the steam catapult is because the electromagnetic catapult in the United States has too many defects and is difficult to have combat capabilities. However, Trump didn't realize that once the electromagnetic catapult is abandoned, the U.S. defense industry will no longer be able to build aircraft carriers, and the U.S. Navy will be doomed.

The reason why the U.S. electromagnetic catapult has so many defects is that the U.S. had already decided to adopt the electromagnetic catapult on the Ford-class aircraft carrier before confirming that the technology was mature. Because the ship's structure of the Ford-class had already been designed, this led to the implementation of the electromagnetic catapult system under immature technology conditions.

The deep reason behind this problem is that currently, the U.S. shipbuilding industry can only rely on military orders to maintain itself, and the industry shrinkage has caused a large loss of technical expertise and personnel. Under the premise that the U.S. Navy, which is far superior to the total of all other countries, does not have a large-scale shipbuilding demand, the Ford-class project, which has reached a budget monster of 13 billion dollars, has become a lifeline for shipyards and equipment suppliers. To make profits without mass production, they must pile up various advanced technologies and concepts to get budgets. In comparison, traditional steam catapults have very little profit margin.

Not only the Ford-class aircraft carrier, but also the Zumwalt-class missile destroyers and the littoral combat ships were based on such reasons, and the final result is that huge R&D costs were spent, but the projects failed.

Firstly, starting with the first ship "Ford," the internal compartment layout, the catapult channel structure below the deck, and most importantly, the integrated power system composed of nuclear reactors, high-capacity energy storage devices, and advanced power management systems, have already been finalized. This not only means that the deck and internal structure need to be redesigned and cut to accommodate the large volume of steam boilers and complex pipelines, but more importantly, the fundamental problem lies in the incompatibility of the power system. The steam catapult requires a continuous and stable supply of high-pressure steam, while the reactor and power distribution system of the Ford-class prioritize the entire ship's electricity rather than directly generating a large amount of steam. This "fundamental" transformation involves engineering volume, technical risks, and costs that exceed building a new aircraft carrier, making it economically and technically unacceptable.

So, just like the failure of the Zumwalt, returning to build the Arleigh Burke III class, or returning to build the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers? It's impossible either. That's because the American steam catapult supplier has gone bankrupt, and now the only company in the world that can provide steam catapult systems is China. The military division of the American steam catapult supplier Babcock & Wilcox (BW) went bankrupt, and the core reason was that it had not received any new steam catapult orders for about 20 years.

The main driving force behind this is the strategic shift of the U.S. Navy. The U.S. military has completely shifted its focus to electromagnetic catapult technology, believing it to be more efficient and flexible, thus eliminating the inefficient and complex steam catapults.

After losing military orders, BW Company could not maintain the production line, eventually leading to a breakdown in the financial chain and bankruptcy. This decision also brought practical challenges, making the subsequent maintenance and spare parts supply of the steam catapults on the U.S. fleet's several Nimitz-class aircraft carriers face difficulties.

Therefore, when Trump announced the complete abandonment of the electromagnetic catapult, the Kennedy, which was already delayed, would only become more delayed, and the construction plan for subsequent aircraft carriers would also fall into a state of stagnation. It should be noted that the U.S. aircraft carrier production chain is already facing a crisis.

The Kennedy has been under construction for 14 years and remains delayed, which is due to the systemic crisis faced by the entire U.S. aircraft carrier production chain. A shocking reality is that 75% of the precision components of the U.S. aircraft carrier depend on a single source supplier. During the pandemic, a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises went bankrupt, causing key materials to be delivered to a standstill. The special steel and composite materials ordered in 2022 were still not delivered until April 2025, and now Trump's move means that the previous procurement of numerous exclusive components for the "Kennedy" and subsequent ships, the completed partial hull structure design, and the interface of the supporting subsystems may face scrapping or major modifications. Shipyards need to readjust their production lines, and engineers need to re-conduct technical evaluations and designs.

For the U.S. defense industry, the more desperate situation is that where to get the steam system from. Now, the U.S. Navy is really going to be doomed!

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7566293310944428598/

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