A $20B battleship the US abandoned after WWII is back in Trump's $1.5T defense budget. Experts say modern missiles will

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

easily destroy it

President Donald Trump last month announced a record-setting $1.5 trillion defense budget for fiscal year 2027. But in that towering proposal, experts say there’s obvious signs of waste and overspend.

A recent Cato Institute report identified several weapons in next year’s defense budget request that the think tank deems unnecessary and ineffective. Among them is a battleship Trump announced in December, which the president named after himself. But the ship, in this case, the “Trump-class” battleship is what the Cato Institute considers to be technology so obsolete, as it’s from a time before the states of Alaska and Hawaii even existed.

Here’s the issue: the U.S. Navy hasn’t operated a battleship since the last Iowa-class vessel was retired in 1992, a type of vessel which hasn’t even been constructed since the mid-20th century. The Trump-class battleship, which the Department of Defense is requesting upwards of $1 billion to build, will inherently be stuck in WWII, and would be rendered helpless against modern-day weapons. In fact, despite the billion-dollar price tag, Cato puts the true cost at $20 billion apiece, and it still won’t be able to subvert modern-day, advanced anti-ship missiles.

“We haven’t used this since World War II,” Ben Giltner, policy analyst at Cato Institute, told Fortune, “because the aircraft was able to pick it off in the ocean.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/a-20b-battleship-the-us-abandoned-after-wwii-is-back-in-trump-s-1-5t-defense-budget-experts-say-modern-missiles-will-easily-destroy-it/ar-AA22hmsM

[bucolic_frolic]

1. "Trump-class battleship" is gold bling on the high seas, just like the White House.

It's not meant to fight anything. It's all for show.

[rampartd]

7. it is an expensive target

missiles can be fired without a humongous expensive machine with a payroll sitting in full view of hypersonic madness/

[in2herbs]

2. Those battleships will never be built. F45's request is to assist his money laundering. nt

[AZJonnie]

3. Yes, well apparently you'll be fired if you refuse to build expensive, useless things in tribute to ME ME ME

I mean, if it was actually functional and useful to others apart from IQ47, it wouldn't really be proper "tribute", now would it?

[sarisataka]

4. They call them battleships

But when you look at what they are planning to build, they are cruisers.

I am not so sure they could be "easily" destroyed, but they would be far less durable than WW2 battleships.

[Torchlight]

5. Muskets and cavalry regiments are next up

on his hi-tech magic mushroom fantasies. Every time he plays at general, I figure it's because one of his staffers let him win a game of Stratego and he gets hopped up on his rare cases of big-boy testosterone.

[Norrrm]

6. USS Iowa

I met a retired Boatswains Mate who checked on board the USS Iowa, fresh out of boot camp. As he checked on board, they were mowing the grass on the teak deck. That's how recent it was out of mothballs. Recommissioned 1984.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa-class_battleship

[rampartd]

8. and mothballed soon after.

[Martin Eden]

11. I built models of Iowa-class battleships when I was a kid

My favorite movie was Sink the Bismark! (built a model of that too).

Then I grew up, and read how aircraft carriers made battleships practically obsolete before the war was over. Their chief use since then was sea-based gun platforms for shelling land targets. Now, they're not even a good option for that.

Still, I enjoyed seeing the USS Missouri battling an alien ship in the preposterous "Battleship" movie.

[Girard442]

9. As I said in another forum: recommission a mothballed supertanker.

Put some phallusy-looking superstructure on it. It'll look huge and menacing and TSF will get off on it.

In truth, it'll be nothing more than a big tin can, but hey, not all that much more vulnerable than anything Trump & Hegseth might dream up.