Trump orders Pentagon to redesign US aircraft carrier to use steam catapults to launch jets

6 days ago by savvie to c/politics

President has suggested steam catapults every year since 2017, saying digital systems are too ‘complicated’

General Atomics, the company that builds the electromagnetic aircraft launch system for the Ford-class carriers, said Trump’s decision to revert to steam “warrants careful reconsideration”. The company told the Journal its work on the new ship is nearly 50% complete and “changing course now would introduce significant cost, schedule, and integration risks”.

Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and a former astronaut, was more blunt in his reaction to the news.

“I’ve launched off the front of aircraft carriers hundreds of times, have a Master’s degree in aeronautical engineering, and am a test pilot and even I wouldn’t suggest to the Navy how to engineer specific systems on its ships,” Kelly wrote on social media. “Donald Trump should stick to what he knows best – ballrooms, bankruptcy, and bullshit.”

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BuckFutter 88 points 6 days ago

“So I said, ‘What is this?’ ‘Sir, this is our digital catapult system’”, Trump went on. “It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out. And I said – and now they want to buy more aircraft carriers – I said, ‘What system are you going to be’– ‘Sir, we’re staying with digital.’ I said, ‘No you’re not. You[’re] going to goddamned steam, the digital costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good’.”

A Guardian review of Trump’s public remarks shows that he has retold that story, with variations, every year since 2017.

The President of the United States folks…just wow…smh.

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Soulphite 35 points 6 days ago

Another grift on the backs of the citizens more than likely. Nay, positively. This pedophile's whole existence is a grift to the universe. Utter trash. It's atoms need to be vaporized as they don't belong.

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quarkquasar 22 points 6 days ago

And the no-bid contract goes to:... The Carrier Steam Company, established 2026, by Donald Trump Jr.

Totally above board, of course. Although the Chairman would be Donald Trump Sr. Which would be a conflict of interest, except the Supreme Court would decide it's not.

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