We’re not quite at space battleships yet, but the U.S. Navy plans to bring the big warships back to the fleet with a new guided-missile battleship. On Dec. 22, 2025, President Donald Trump, Navy Secretary John Phelan, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the planned construction of the USS Defiant (BBG-1).
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Billed as the most lethal surface combatant ever constructed, the Defiant would be the first Trump-class battleship and the Navy’s first designated guided-missile battleship. The Iowa-class battleships USS Missouri and USS Wisconsin provided naval gunfire support during Operation Desert Storm with their 16-inch guns and Tomahawk cruise missiles. However, the Defiant would be armed with large magazines of hypersonic missiles.
“The President has been clear—we must bring back our American maritime industrial might, and he has told me many times that as Secretary of the Navy it is my job to equip our sailors to win the fight at sea with the finest ships in our history,” Phelan said in a Navy press release. “Now when a conflict arises, you’re going to ask us two questions: where is the carrier, and where is the battleship.”
Key to the Navy’s Golden Fleet initiative, the Trump-class battleships would be the centerpiece of American naval power. Triple the size of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the new BBG would also be capable of launching nuclear cruise missiles in addition to conventional hypersonics.
The strategic shift to a battleship as a capital ship and the focus on hypersonics does not negate the importance of the aircraft carrier in the fleet. While the Trump-class battleship would be capable of commanding its own Surface Action Group for Surface and Anti-Submarine Warfare efforts, it can also operate in a traditional Integrated Air and Missile Defense role with a Carrier Strike Group.
“As we forge the future of our Navy’s Fleet, we need a larger surface combatant and the Trump-class battleships meet that requirement,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said in the same press release. “We will ensure continuous improvement, intellectually honest assessments about the requirement to effectively deter and win in the 2030s and beyond, and disciplined execution resulting in a Fleet unparalleled in lethality, adaptability, and strength.”
Details on the construction of the USS Defiant were not provided in the initial announcement. However, the Navy noted it would be a “Navy-led, industry-collaborative design team approach to accelerate design and construction, and supported by over 1,000 suppliers in nearly every state in America.”
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