First Trump-class Battleship Could Cost $23.4B, Says CBO
The first Trump-class battleship (BBG(X)) could cost about $23 billion with an overall cost for the 15-ship program to be about $275 billion, according to a new Congressional Budget Office estimate published on Wednesday. Based on the published estimate on the size and nuclear propulsion, the CBO calculated a full displacement 35,000-ton nuclear battleship would average to about $18 billion a hull over the life of the program. “If built to those specifications, the ship would be the largest surface combatant in the world and larger than any surface combatant built for the Navy since World War II,” reads the
Naval Sea Systems Command image The first Trump-class battleship (BBG(X)) could cost about $23 billion with an overall cost for the 15-ship program to be about $275 billion, according to a new Congressional Budget Office estimate published on Wednesday.
Based on the published estimate on the size and nuclear propulsion, the CBO calculated a full displacement 35,000-ton nuclear battleship would average to about $18 billion a hull over the life of the program.
“If built to those specifications, the ship would be the largest surface combatant in the world and larger than any surface combatant built for the Navy since World War II,” reads the report. “It would be more than three and a half times the size of the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer and more than twice the size of the Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer.”
Announced in December, the Trump-class battleship would be built around a 128 Mark 41 vertical launch cells, four tubes for Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic missiles, an electromagnetic railgun and a scaled-up version of the Navy’s AN/SPY-6 integrated air and missile defense radar.
“Other elements would include large lasers, a rail gun, and a variety of defensive systems such as guns, smaller missiles, decoys, and optical dazzlers intended to counter and disrupt unmanned aerial systems. If some of those technologies were not available when construction began, the Navy could still build the ship, reserving space and power for their later installation,” reads the report.
Other factors include the addition of the Navy’s planned nuclear weapons.
“The BBGN would add considerable firepower to the Navy’s fleet. The Navy has stated that the ship would be equipped to carry the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile, or SLCM-N. 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,” reads the report.
While the broad outlines of the program have been published, the exact specifications that are public made it difficult to get a firm cost value for the program.
“Those estimates are highly uncertain and rely on CBO’s assessments of the ship’s design and the overall battleship program. Other factors could also make costs higher or lower than CBO’s estimates,” reads the report requested by ranking member of the Senate Committee on the Budget Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
For example, building a conventionally powered battleship program would be about 13 percent cheaper than a nuclear ship but the operations and maintenance costs of a nuclear battleship would be lower. The estimate also takes into consideration the initial build plan that would spread some module work to several yards with the final assembly at HII Newport News Shipbuilding in Drydock 12 where the modules of the Ford-class aircraft carrier come together.
“CBO’s estimate of the ship’s cost incorporates three assumptions about the program: that the lead ship would be ordered in 2028, as specified in the Navy’s budget documents; that the Navy would purchase 15 ships and build them at the rate specified in its 2027 shipbuilding plan; and that one shipyard would perform the final assembly of the ship, but others would build sections or portions of the ship,” reads the report.
Still, CBO’s methodology for determining cost, by estimating the cost per ton on a light ship displacement, has historically proved accurate in predicting cost growth in hulls.
Overall, the inclusion of the battleship in the Navy’s long-range shipbuilding plan would more than double the Navy’s surface combatant budget from its Fiscal Year 2025 plan from $6.9 billion a year to $15.2 billion, according to the report.
“The 2027 shipbuilding plan would substantially increase the number of large surface combatants the Navy would purchase. Under that plan, the Navy would purchase 72 such ships between 2027 and 2056: 15 BBGNs and 57 DDG-51 Flight IIIs,” reads the report.
The battleship program is a major priority for the Trump administration with the Pentagon requesting $1 billion for advanced procurement funds in the Fiscal Year 2027 budget request with an anticipated order date in 2028.
Congress has been cooler on the program, asking the Navy to continue to develop a smaller next generation guided-missile destroyer as well as the battleship.
