The U.S. Navy has confirmed its Trump-class battleships will be nuclear-powered, using the same reactor technology as the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle told the House Appropriations Committee on May 12 that the battleships would use the Ford class’s A1B nuclear reactor, along with steam generator and reactor cooling pump components. “All of that technology, from the reactor plant perspective, is all pull-through technology from the Ford class,” Caudle said.
The Navy’s fiscal year 2027 shipbuilding plan, released May 11, formally designates the warships as BBGNs, or nuclear-powered guided-missile battleships, and calls for 15 by 2055. The lead vessel, USS Defiant, is slated for a fiscal year 2028 order and delivery in 2036, at an estimated cost of $17.47 billion.
The confirmation arrived weeks after then-Secretary of the Navy John Phelan called nuclear propulsion “unlikely.” Phelan was fired on April 22. President Trump said the following day that Phelan had “some conflicts with some other people, mostly as to building and buying new ships.”
BREAKING: President Trump speaks about the firing of Navy Secretary John Phelan:
“He’s a very good man. I really liked him, but he had some conflict, not necessarily with Pete. He’s a hard charger, and he had some conflicts with some other people, mostly as to building and… pic.twitter.com/xJOhYygka4
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 23, 2026
Newport News Shipbuilding, a Huntington Ingalls Industries division and the country’s only yard certified for nuclear-powered surface vessel construction, already faces pressure from Ford-class carrier delays and nuclear submarine work tied to the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program and Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) obligations.
“Since they have decided to build the nuclear-powered battleship, that’s a bigger challenge for the shipbuilding industrial base,” Eric Labs, a senior naval analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, said. “Newport News is already very, very full with its carrier work and its submarine work.”
The plan also marks the Navy’s first detailed commitment to medium unmanned surface vessels (MUSVs), targeting 47 by 2031 and 72 by 2056, as part of a 450-vessel fleet target.
