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.

    • RFKJrsBrainworm@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      The same dumb motherfucker who wanted to nuke a hurricane and also extended a hurricane path with a Sharpe because NOAA wouldn’t entertain his valuable input on hurricane path…of course a guy like that is vexed by magnets

      • suigenerix@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        … and he looked up at a solar eclipse without eye protection… multiple times!

        And he also… shit, how long does everyone have? This list will take a fair while to get through

  • dan1101@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    This idiot thinks he is an expert on everything. More people need to tell the baby NO.

  • andallthat@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Next: why do we even need the planes; we can directly catapult stones on the enemy! Wonder why nobody ever thought about it

        • TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Not only part of the arsenal. In a lot of times and places throughout history, they’ve been your best option against most things (though generally this is only when you have the sufficient manpower to make them work; for 1v1 matchups, swords are usually better)

  • Melonpoly@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    “Donald Trump should stick to what he knows best – ballrooms, bankruptcy, and bullshit.”

  • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    The world will yield to US might when these are installed.

    Trump is putting out Aladeen vibes…

  • Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Use the electromagnetic launcher just also add a tube that shoots out a stream of hot steam as it launches a plane so his dumb ass can brag about how he built a steam launcher.

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      2 months ago

      I mean, China was bragging they made a bus a year ago. They called it a trackless train or some shit.

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        2 months ago

        The change there was that it could use both tracks and roads, allowing it more transit flexibility

        The innovation wasn’t as much technical as it was logistical

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        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.

  • AlternatePersonMan@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    This moron is confounded by magnets and windmills. He is one of the dumbest (did you know there’s a ‘b’ in dumb? Most people don’t you know) people in American history.

  • kikutwo@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Stable genius. We should require the automobile manufacturers to revert back to steam power too. Think of it!

    • TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world
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      Ooooo what about steam powered AI data centers? Would that even be possible? What about my PC? Could I run Steam on steam?

  • Formfiller@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Have they finished turning the California water faucet 37 degrees towards Canada yet? Or reopening Alcatraz? How many of these crackhead ideas go anywhere?

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    2 months ago

    After this and reviving the idea of battleships (which will make them again fat targets for kamikaze rubber boats), betcha the bastard will want fucking outsized wonder weapons.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Because it’s electric?

    Nevermind the electronic valves and electronic systems that control the steam, it just can’t be electric where it counts. This is the stupidest president ever.

    • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
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      Because it’s electric?

      No, because it has magnets.

      Trump is notoriously afraid of magnets. It upsets him that they would put a magnet on something that’s supposed to float on the sea, and he worries about them sinking with the magnets still on them. I read through one of his rants on the topic, verbatim. The guy is stupid. Very stupid indeed. And senile.

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      2 months ago

      The man really does not understand that electricity is the purest and highest form of energy there is.

  • Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    I really hate how Americans are screwing the world via Trump but at least he is also screwing Americans. Not quite balance but at least Americans should be feeling some of the pain that they insist on inflicting on the rest of the world.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      at least he is also screwing Americans

      It’s almost as if he’s really a tool of Putin and the Saudis and doesn’t give two fucks about America.

      Edit: I can’t believe I forgot about Israel.

    • gogonan@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Bro most of America lives paycheck to paycheck under an inhumane capitalistic system designed to make us desperate, afraid, and without a sense of community. We are dependent upon employment to get whatever overpriced and impersonal healthcare we are allowed by our employer-provided insurance. We have no savings. We are guaranteed no time off, and we can be fired in most places at any time for any reason. Our educational infrastructure has been systematically degraded over the past few decades, as have all our consumer protections and what few tools we’ve ever had to fight these oppressive conditions. Our kids get sent to war because joining the military is about the only method the poor and undereducated have of getting a chance of going to college or securing a mortgage. The people fucking you and the rest of the world aren’t Americans, they’re our oligarchs.