WASHINGTON — The first Trump-class battleship could cost $23.4 billion, with the 14 subsequent ships the Navy plans to purchase averaging $18 billion, Congressional Budget Office report released today said.
This would bring the battleship program total to $275 billion for 15 nuclear-powered battleships, each weighing roughly 35,000 tons, the report said. A 35,000-ton battleship would clock in as the biggest surface combatant in the world at roughly three and half times the size of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, all while adding “considerable firepower to the Navy’s fleet,” according to the report.
However, the Navy’s budget request justification for the battleship says the vessel will ultimately range between 35,000 to 41,000 tons. If the ship ends up with a full-load displacement of 41,000 tons, the cost for the lead ship would increase by 16 percent, the report said.
“The Navy has stated that the ship would be equipped to carry the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile, or SLCM-N,” the report said. “The number of nuclear-tipped cruise missiles the ship would carry is unknown but would probably be small given the Navy’s descriptions of the nuclear cruise missile program. Nevertheless, carrying nuclear weapons would give the battleship more firepower than any ship in the fleet other than the Navy’s 14 Ohio class ballistic missile submarines, which carry 70 percent of the nation’s deployed strategic nuclear warheads.”
The Navy confirmed in May in its latest shipbuilding plan that the battleship would be nuclear-powered, and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle told lawmakers that month that the ship would feature the same nuclear reactor as the one on the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford.
Prior to the announcement that the battleship would be nuclear powered, CBO estimated in January that the first Trump-class battleship could cost up to roughly $20.6 billion if ordered immediately, with costs expected to increase over time. The report released today said that an initial, conventionally powered battleship would total around $21.3 billion, and all 15 ships would total roughly $243 billion.
“The total cost of $275 billion estimated for the 15 nuclear-powered ships would be about 13 percent greater,” the report said.
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Still, the analysis noted that a nuclear-powered ship would ultimately cut down operating costs since fuel wouldn’t be purchased — although further details weren’t readily available.
“CBO does not have enough information to estimate those potential savings, which would depend on the final design of the ship and the specifications of the conventional propulsion plant it otherwise would have used,” the report said.
CBO’s $23.4 billion estimate for the first battleship is based on several assumptions about the program, including that the initial ship is ordered in 2028, that the Navy purchases a total of 15 vessels through 2056 at the rate outlined in its shipbuilding plan, and that one shipyard completes final assembly of the ship — with others pitching in to build portions or sections of the ship.
Regardless, CBO said that the estimates are “highly uncertain and rely on CBO’s assessments of the ship’s design and the overall battleship program.”
The Navy is requesting approximately $1 billion in advance procurement and roughly $837 million in research and development funds for the battleship in its fiscal 2027 budget request. According to budget documents released in April, the Navy is planning to request roughly $17 billion in procurement funding for the first ship in FY28, and approximately $13 billion in 2030 for the second battleship.
President Donald Trump unveiled plans for the battleship in December as part of his “Golden Fleet” initiative, and the ship is expected to carry a host of weapons, including hypersonic weapons, electronic rail guns and high-powered, laser-based weaponry.