Trump Orders Navy to Replace Digital Jet Catapults With Steam on New Carrier

Trump has directed the Pentagon to abandon advanced electromagnetic catapults on a new aircraft carrier in favor of older steam technology.

President Trump has issued an order directing the Pentagon to redesign a new U.S. aircraft carrier to use steam-powered catapults for launching jets, reversing the Navy's adoption of a more modern electromagnetic system. The directive continues a position Trump has held since at least 2017, when he first publicly criticized the newer technology as too complicated. The system Trump wants replaced is the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, or EALS, which was introduced on the USS Gerald R. Ford class of carriers as an upgrade over the conventional steam catapults used on older Nimitz-class ships. Trump has repeatedly argued the digital technology is unreliable and overly complex compared to the proven steam-based alternative. The order targets the design of a forthcoming carrier, requiring the Pentagon to incorporate steam catapults into its construction plans. The Gerald R. Ford-class carriers, which use EALS, have faced well-documented reliability and cost overruns since the Ford itself was commissioned in 2017, a history that has fueled Trump's ongoing criticism of the system.

Why it matters

Aircraft carriers are among the most expensive and strategically significant assets in the U.S. military, and design changes mid-program can add significant cost and delay. Reverting to steam technology would represent a rare rollback of a major naval modernization effort.

What's next

It is not yet clear how the Pentagon will respond to the directive or what timeline and cost implications a redesign would involve.

Key facts

• Trump first called for a return to steam catapults in 2017, making this a years-long position
• The modern system being targeted is the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EALS), used on Gerald R. Ford-class carriers
• Steam catapults were the standard launch technology on older Nimitz-class carriers
• The Gerald R. Ford and its EALS system experienced significant cost overruns and reliability problems after commissioning in 2017
• Trump's order directs the Pentagon to redesign a new carrier, not retrofit existing ships

Bias & framing notes

Both sources are from The Guardian, offering no independent corroboration. The second source was a live blog that closed without adding substantive additional detail beyond the main article. Neither source includes a response or stated rationale from Pentagon officials, which limits the picture of how the military is receiving the order.

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