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US Navy’s new nuclear battleship could balloon to $275 billion, as the first ship alone costs a staggering $23.4 billion

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2 hours ago

12 August 2026

NewsAdmin

The Trump-class battleship program could cost the Navy $275 billion total
First battleship alone carries a staggering $23.4 billion price tag
Each ship weighs 35,000 tons and packs hypersonic missiles, nuclear missiles, lasers, and more

A new US Congressional Budget Office report has estimated that the Navy’s proposed Trump-class battleship program could ultimately cost taxpayers $275 billion.

The first vessel alone is projected to cost $23.4 billion, roughly $6 billion more than the Navy’s initial estimate initially offered in December 2025.

Officials describe the 35,000-ton nuclear-powered warship as the most heavily armed surface combatant the Navy has ever attempted to build.

Ambitious design, timeline, and escalating costs

The Trump administration announced its intention to build this new class of large surface combatants in December 2025, describing it as a guided missile battleship.

It plans to equip this battleship with rail guns, large lasers, hypersonic missiles, nuclear cruise missiles and anti-air, land-attack and anti-ship missiles.

“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,” according to 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.”

The Navy will construct 15 Trump-class battleships between 2028 and 2056, with each of the following fourteen ships priced at $18 billion.

By comparison, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s newest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, cost approximately $13.3 billion to build.

According to the CBO report, shipyards would need to produce 12% greater tonnage by 2035 under the 2027 plan than under the 2025 version.

To meet this schedule, the Navy would need to construct roughly one new battleship every other year between 2028 and 2056.

During that same period, the service would also need to continue producing two DDG-51 destroyers every single year without interruption or delay.

By 2058, total tonnage for large surface combatants would need to grow by 60%, a pace the report calls a potential challenge for industry.

Shipbuilding struggles raise doubts

Concerns about the Navy’s shipbuilding capacity are not new, and a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report from last March outlined years of setbacks.

The GAO found that too few ships have been completed, that new vessels often fail to perform as expected, and that deliveries frequently run late.

Some ships have arrived up to three years behind schedule, according to the agency’s assessment of nearly two decades of shipbuilding programs.

“We are effectively made to operate in a perpetual state of triage,” said Shelby S. Oakley, director at the Government Accountability Office.

Oakley told the Senate Armed Services Committee that unrealistic assumptions about cost and schedule have repeatedly diverted resources and delayed shipbuilding programs.

The report further notes that switching to nuclear propulsion could lower the battleship’s long-term operating costs by removing the need for fuel purchases.

However, the CBO did not provide a specific estimate of how much money nuclear power might save over the life of the program.

Via Defense News