Trump has suggested steam catapults every year since 2017, saying digital systems are too ‘complicated’
After nearly a decade of loudly complaining about the fact that modern US aircraft carriers use electromagnetic systems to launch fighter jets instead of steam-powered catapults, Donald Trump has directed the Pentagon to redesign a new aircraft carrier to replace the modern system with the old-fashioned catapults he prefers.
Trump signed a national security memorandum on Thursday directing the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and the acting navy secretary, Hung Cao, to make the change he has had his heart set on since at least 2017, when he first described his idea to Time magazine.
The memorandum gives the Pentagon leaders 60 days to come up with “a plan on the required measures to replace the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Weapons Elevators with steam and hydraulic systems for the construction of” the USS Doris Miller, a Ford-class aircraft carrier, which is already two years behind schedule.
Y’know it’s usually the other way around, ya know folks reinventing the train but shittier and calling it a car or bus. Weirdly refreshing. Also trackless trains have existed since the 1800s with steam tractors, there was a nuclear powered equivalent in the 50s, and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of something similar being used in Iraq and Syria back in the 30s where they just hooked up multiple trailers to a pair of modified trucks to move goods to places without rail.