Trump Announces New Battleship Class to Counter China

President Donald Trump has directed the U.S. Navy to pursue a new Trump class battleship—starting with the future USS Defiant (BBG 1)—as the service also launches a faster-to-build FF(X) frigate program under a broader Golden Fleet effort aimed at expanding U.S. maritime firepower as China’s navy continues to grow.​

What Trump announced

President Donald J. Trump, Navy Secretary John C. Phelan, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the Navy’s intent to build a new class of American-designed battleships, describing them as the most lethal surface combatant ever constructed.

The first ship is planned as the future USS Defiant (BBG 1), and the Navy said the new hulls will be the centerpiece of its Golden Fleet initiative.​

Navy leadership framed the program as both a combat-power push and an industrial-base push, stating the battleship will be acquired through a Navy-led, industry-collaborative design team approach supported by over 1,000 suppliers in nearly every state.

The Navy also said it intends to keep building DDG-51 destroyers while developing the new FF(X) frigate to create a deliberate high/low mix that grows fleet numbers while adding new top-end capability.​

What the Trump class is designed to do

The Navy’s release describes the Trump class as triple the size of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and built to carry larger missile magazines and more firepower.​

It is planned to fire Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic missiles and a nuclear-armed surface-launched cruise missile the Navy calls the Surface Launch Cruise Missile–Nuclear.

Operationally, the Navy said the ship is intended to work in integrated air and missile defense with a carrier strike group, command its own surface action group, deliver long-range hypersonic strategic fires, and act as a central command-and-control node—quarterbacking fleet operations.​
The service presented the concept as a way to distribute more firepower across the fleet than any other class of ship, signaling a move toward fewer but heavier-hitting surface combatants alongside smaller ships.​

The other Golden Fleet news: FF(X) frigates

Days before the battleship announcement, the Navy announced it will introduce a new class of smaller surface combatants designated FF(X), calling them a smaller, more agile surface combatant meant to complement larger multi-mission warships.

Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan said he directed acquisition of a new frigate class based on Huntington Ingalls Industries’ proven Legend-class National Security Cutter design and set a goal to have the first hull in the water in 2028.

The Navy said FF(X) will emphasize rapid, cost-effective production by leveraging a mature design to reduce cost, schedule, and technical risk, and it will use a lead yard, and competitive follow-on strategy for multi-yard construction.

The service also described FF(X) as adaptable, focused primarily on surface warfare but able to carry modular payloads and command unmanned systems to support a broad range of operations.

Timeline at a glance

Why China is central to the backdrop

While the Navy announcement emphasized maritime superiority and outmatching any foreign adversary, the strategic context is shaped by the Pentagon’s long-running assessment that China is the pacing challenge in defense planning.​

In its latest annual report to Congress, the U.S. Department of Defense said China has the world’s largest navy by number, with a battle force of over 370 ships and submarines, including more than 140 major surface combatants.

The same DoD report describes China as the world’s top ship-producing nation by tonnage and says the country is capable of producing a wide range of naval combatants and is nearly self-sufficient for shipbuilding needs.​

DoD also estimates China surpassed 600 operational nuclear warheads as of mid-2024 and projects the stockpile will exceed 1,000 by 2030, a factor that heightens U.S. focus on survivable long-range strike and deterrence systems at sea.​

The budget and shipbuilding reality check

Any major fleet expansion will face cost pressure and industrial constraints, and recent long-range planning documents show the scale of the challenge for U.S. shipbuilding.​

The Congressional Budget Office estimate cited in a public analysis of the Navy’s FY2025 shipbuilding plan puts average annual costs at about $40.1 billion (in 2024 dollars) across 2025–2054, including $35.8 billion for new-ship construction.​

That same analysis notes the Navy’s stated long-term goal of a 381-ship battle force and reports the fleet stood at 296 battle force ships as of Dec. 1, 2024, highlighting the size of the gap policymakers are trying to close.​

Against that backdrop, the Navy is now pairing a very large, high-end surface combatant concept (Trump class) with a build faster small combatant approach (FF(X))—an explicit attempt to balance capability with capacity.​

Trump class vs FF(X) (as described by the Navy)

Final Thoughts

The Trump class announcement and the FF(X) frigate rollout tie together into a single Navy message: build a larger, harder-hitting surface combatant for the 2030s while simultaneously fielding smaller ships faster to raise day-to-day operational capacity.​

How quickly either program becomes real hardware will depend on design maturity, shipyard throughput, and Congress aligning budgets with long-term fleet targets that independent cost estimates already show as expensive.​

Strategically, the plan arrives as DoD continues to document China’s rapid naval growth, shipbuilding strength, and expanding nuclear stockpile—trends that are likely to keep maritime deterrence and ship production at the center of U.S. defense policy debates.​