Carrier swap and steam catapults mark Navy strain amid Iran ops

President Donald Trump has directed the Pentagon to scrap the Navy's electromagnetic aircraft launch system on its newest carriers and revert to steam-powered catapults, a move that defense officials say will require extensive redesign work and add billions to already strained shipbuilding budgets. The national security memorandum, signed Thursday, gives the Defense Department and Navy two months to deliver detailed plans for replacing the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, known as EMALS, along with advanced weapons elevators, on the Ford-class carriers still under construction.

The order targets the USS Doris Miller, the fourth ship in the class now being built, and signals a broader push to abandon the magnetic technology that has been installed on the USS Gerald R. Ford and its immediate successors. Navy engineers developed EMALS to reduce maintenance demands and allow more flexible launch operations compared with the steam systems used on older Nimitz-class carriers. Trump has publicly criticized the newer system since at least 2017, repeatedly claiming it lacks sufficient power and reliability.

The directive arrives as the Navy manages extended deployments tied to operations against Iran. The USS Abraham Lincoln has now spent more than 260 consecutive days at sea supporting a blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, a pace that has produced reports of mental health strain and supply shortages aboard the ship. Democratic lawmakers have pressed Pentagon leaders for accountability over crew conditions, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has dismissed those concerns as overstated. The USS George Washington is now en route from the Pacific to relieve the Lincoln.

Reverting to steam catapults would require more sailors to operate and maintain the equipment, at a time when the service is already struggling to meet recruitment targets. The change would also affect the hydraulic weapons elevators now planned for the Doris Miller, forcing a redesign of systems that were intended to speed munitions handling. Industry estimates circulated inside the Pentagon put the potential added cost in the billions of dollars, though no final figure has been released.

Trump's long-running focus on the catapult technology has drawn renewed attention because it coincides with broader questions about military readiness and spending priorities. The Navy has sought additional funding from Congress for ship construction and maintenance while managing the demands of the ongoing Iran-related operations. The memorandum does not call for retrofitting carriers already at sea, but it requires the Pentagon to outline timelines and resources needed to implement the shift on future hulls.

Critics inside and outside the service have noted that the electromagnetic system was chosen precisely to address limitations of the older steam technology, including higher crew requirements and slower turnaround times between launches. The reversal comes without new technical assessments showing widespread failures in the current system, according to officials familiar with the directive.