Trump Orders the Navy to Return to an Older Launch System
The new mandate would likely cost billions of dollars and revert the Navy's most advanced ships to a system that takes more sailors to operate and is more difficult to maintain.
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lamplighter
Joined 2013/04/13Visited 2026/08/14
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Trump orders Navy to abandon carrier launch system, return to steam catapults reut.rs/4g7WsI6[image or embed] -- Reuters (@reuters.com) 5:45 PM · Aug 13, 2026
Trump orders Navy to abandon carrier launch system, return to steam catapults reut.rs/4g7WsI6[image or embed]
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More from the article ...
... The memo directs the Pentagon and the Navy to present Trump with plans to remove the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, also known as EMALS, within two months. It also says the Ford-class carrier's electromagnetic weapons elevators should be replaced. The move comes after years of Trump railing against the new, magnetically powered catapult system that shoots fighter jets off the deck of the carriers. It also comes at a time when the U.S. military is trying to find funding from Congress for all its desired equipment and as the Navy is struggling to fill its ships with enough sailors. Trump's ire with the new technology goes back to at least 2017 in his first term, when he claimed the new system is "not good" and "doesn't have the power" of the older, steam systems in an interview with Time magazine. ...
The move comes after years of Trump railing against the new, magnetically powered catapult system that shoots fighter jets off the deck of the carriers. It also comes at a time when the U.S. military is trying to find funding from Congress for all its desired equipment and as the Navy is struggling to fill its ships with enough sailors.
Trump's ire with the new technology goes back to at least 2017 in his first term, when he claimed the new system is "not good" and "doesn't have the power" of the older, steam systems in an interview with Time magazine. ...
#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-08-14 01:14 PM | Reply
Another view ...
Mark Kelly on aircraft carrier catapult order: 'Donald Trump knows nothing about this stuff' thehill.com
... Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) blasted President Trump on Thursday for ordering the U.S. Navy to revert to older catapult systems on its aircraft carriers, arguing the change would be costly while questioning Trump's qualifications to make such a call. "He's a marginally failed real estate developer with multiple bankruptcies," Kelly said in an interview with MS NOW. "He shouldn't be weighing in on systems, on aircraft carriers." ... The Arizona Democrat has said that despite his own experience in hundreds of career takeoffs and landings, his degree in aeronautical and marine engineering and his work as a test pilot, he still would not tell Navy engineers how to design a carrier. "Donald Trump knows nothing about this stuff," the senator continued in the interview. "Not in any world would I suggest to the Navy to change the design of some system on a ship at this point." He added, "I mean, does the guy know nothing about the way our government is supposed to work and how it's supposed to be managed?" ...
"He's a marginally failed real estate developer with multiple bankruptcies," Kelly said in an interview with MS NOW. "He shouldn't be weighing in on systems, on aircraft carriers." ...
The Arizona Democrat has said that despite his own experience in hundreds of career takeoffs and landings, his degree in aeronautical and marine engineering and his work as a test pilot, he still would not tell Navy engineers how to design a carrier.
"Donald Trump knows nothing about this stuff," the senator continued in the interview. "Not in any world would I suggest to the Navy to change the design of some system on a ship at this point."
He added, "I mean, does the guy know nothing about the way our government is supposed to work and how it's supposed to be managed?" ...
#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-08-14 01:16 PM | Reply
This is pretty funny. When do they install the Italian marble flight decks?
#3 | Posted by REDIAL at 2026-08-14 01:18 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1
No more argument from the remnants of MAGA that Donald Trump isn't one superficial and stupid mofo.
#4 | Posted by Zed at 2026-08-14 01:52 PM | Reply
Trump is re-purposing those electrons for ICE shock gloves.
#5 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-08-14 01:55 PM | Reply
He will TACO on this, of course. Or it will set the navy shipbuilding program back about ten years.
#6 | Posted by REDIAL at 2026-08-14 01:56 PM | Reply
Putin smiles.
#7 | Posted by morris at 2026-08-14 04:29 PM | Reply
Donald Trump knows nothing about this stuff'
He knows enough.
He knows someone who is giving him money wants to provide the parts for the steam catapult version.
#8 | Posted by jpw at 2026-08-14 05:24 PM | Reply
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