CBO warns $275 billion cost and shipyard capacity challenges for proposed nuclear-powered battleships
A Congressional Budget Office report estimates the 15 planned nuclear-powered surface combatants would cost about $275 billion and may exceed the production capacity of U.S. shipyards.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the U.S. Navy’s plan to build 15 nuclear-powered surface combatants, dubbed “Trump-class” battleships, could cost roughly $275 billion, with each vessel priced above $18 billion. The program would raise the Navy’s surface-combatant procurement budget from $11 billion in 2025 to $18 billion in 2027, according to the CBO.
The administration announced the ships in December, describing them as equipped with advanced guns, missiles, hypersonic weapons, railguns, cruise missiles and high-power lasers. Navy officials later said the vessels would also carry nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, making them the most powerful surface ships after ballistic-missile submarines.
The Navy’s 2027 shipbuilding plan calls for acquiring the 35,000-ton ships between 2028 and 2056. The CBO projects the first ship would cost $23.4 billion, with later units around $18 billion each, noting the original estimate was for a conventionally powered design.
"By 2035, the Navy’s … plan would more than double the tonnage of large surface combatants that shipbuilders would need to produce… Accommodating such a sizable increase in the production of large surface combatants could be a challenge for the shipbuilding industry," the CBO report states.
The report highlights that existing shipyards, primarily Bath Iron Works and Ingalls Shipbuilding, already face delays and cost overruns on destroyer programs, with average delivery delays of five years. Neither yard has experience building nuclear-powered surface ships. The CBO notes that assembly would likely shift to Newport News Shipbuilding, which also constructs aircraft carriers and submarines, raising concerns about impacts on those programs.
Analysts have questioned the strategic value of such expensive platforms amid the growing effectiveness of low-cost drones and other modern weapons. Retired Admiral James Stavridis wrote that concentrating large amounts of firepower and personnel on a few large vessels may be less prudent given current threats such as drone swarms and cyber weapons.