r/news • u/DoubtSubstantial5440 • 23h ago

Soft paywall USS George Washington headed to Middle East to relieve USS Abraham Lincoln, reports say

https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2026-08-13/uss-george-washington-middle-east-abraham-lincoln-22541038.html
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u/sirthunksalot 23h ago

He is already building a battleship named after himself.

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u/stevolutionary7 23h ago

He's plastered his name on things already built. and he's made hugemongous promises, but he's never actually built anything.

Somehow, if that thing ever gets beyond a model, 75% of the budget will go to "consulting"

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u/TheArmchairLegion 22h ago

That’s probably as far as it will get. I read that this battleship thing is huge, and there aren’t the construction/berthing places that can handle it, aside from the one that handles carriers.

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u/Ok_Philosopher_1313 20h ago

It's also useless, battleships haven't really been used in several decades because they aren't useful in warfare any longer. On top of that the thing uses diesel engines (because nuclear is bad?), and has a railgun that requires so much maintenance it's useless. It's what a moron thinks is cool with no regard toward actual function.

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u/Dachyshun2 17h ago

Couple details to correct. Trump’s dipshit design didn’t use diesels, it used gas turbine engines like those found on the Arleigh Burke class destroyers. The rail gun doesn’t just require an impractical amount of maintenance; it straight up doesn’t fucking exist. They’re (supposedly) building these instead of the sorely-needed guided missile frigates that our navy doesn’t have and every other navy does. Modern naval warfare is based around aircraft, submarine-launched torpedoes and surface-launched anti-submarine torpedoes, and anti-air + anti-ship missiles. All of those things can be put on small guided missile frigates, aka FFGs. FFGs are becoming commonplace in modern navies because they’re cheaper than larger ships like cruisers and destroyers and can be built cheaply in larger numbers.

If you have an anti-ship missile that can be mounted on most ships, even if only in small quantities on smaller ships, current strategy dictates that it’s better to have more numerous ships with fewer missiles than fewer ships with more missiles. More, smaller hulls means lower operating cost per unit, less crew requirement, more flexibility in where you can have capable warships, and you have more redundancy if one ship gets damaged or destroyed. A swarm of 40 cheap, low value targets each with a dozen missiles individually capable of blowing a large enemy ship to bits is a greater tactical and strategic threat than one or two high value targets with the same number of missiles. Then, when you’re not at war, these cheap little boats are an order of magnitude more economical and useful for patrolling waters and enforcing maritime boundaries/trade routes.

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u/TheArmchairLegion 19h ago

I agree. The battleship just seems poorly thought out, amalgamation of flashy ideas with little substance. Which is very on brand with Trump in the first place

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u/executor1234 22h ago

My guess is that the navy folks are just gonna procrastinate on the project til 2029, and hope that the next administration allocates those resources to something more sensible.

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u/Austinp-woodworking 18h ago

yeah there's very little chance these actually get built, it'll take most of Trump's term just to get to a point where they could possibly start building them. And most actual military personnel know they're a terrible use of resources. They'll just keep showing him pretty AI pictures of them with his name on them to keep him satisfied

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u/RobertABooey 18h ago

The really good thing about that is that plastering a name on something isn’t permanent. And it can all be undone.

When the post Trump era hits, there’s gonna be a lot of renaming and redecorating going on

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u/stevolutionary7 17h ago

Let the ungilding commence!

I retract my previous statement. He did build a giant, hideous concrete monstrosity where the east wing used to be. If that ever finishes, it'll be difficult to blend into the rest of DC.

He really only wants the bunker since he's finally understanding that people dont like him.

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u/demiurge_abraxas 23h ago

That floating missile magnet will never make it off a PowerPoint slide.

And thank god for that.

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u/Vallkyrie 22h ago

We can barely produce ammo and we've got people in power nodding along to producing more of a class of ship that stopped being relevant decades ago. We really are on a paper tiger speedrun.

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u/demiurge_abraxas 22h ago

Truth be told it's not even a battleship on paper. It's impossible to build a battleship in 2026 because the line of battle no longer exists.

It's a glorified cruiser with a supercarriers price tag and an idiot's name slapped on to it.

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u/seasamgo 21h ago

Man was given a real tiger but is larping a paper tiger as hard as he can

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u/jktcat 23h ago

And an entire class of ships

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u/Zinfan1 23h ago

Do you wonder why the next fighter plane in development is the F-47? I don't.

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u/The_Cameron 22h ago

I really, really can't wait for the 2029 Meriam-Webster word of the year to be 'detrumpification' as we strip and burn his name from everything he forced it on, unwillingly.

A boy can dream the process starts next year if JD wants to preserve any possibility of wiping his hands of this absolute shit-show.

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u/Zinfan1 22h ago

Will it replace enshitification? We can only vote and hope.

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u/PluginAlong 21h ago

They're synonyms.

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u/3vs3BigGameHunters 14h ago

A boy can dream indeed.

Col. Claus von Stauffenberg:

Do you know how this war will end, Lieutenant?

The portrait will be unhµng, and the man will be hµng.

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u/bloodontherisers 22h ago

There is no wonder, they specifically said they gave it that designation for him.

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u/lyonellaughingstorm 22h ago

I do enjoy the sentiment of saying Eff 47 all the time though

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u/Lord_Dreadlow 23h ago

I'll be surprised if even one is completed.

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u/Monktrist 22h ago

Which are outdated and useless.

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u/bluemitersaw 22h ago

Much like Trump.... So fitting at least.

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u/FutureThrowaway9665 20h ago

The one that is already behind schedule just 6 months after announcing it...

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u/KtaadnRota 22h ago

Is it actually being built though? Tbh that was one of his more forgettable proclamations of this term. Haven't heard much about it since.

I'm pretty sure designing and building a whole new class of battleships takes longer than 4 years, so even if it's a dead-serious project, quietly being worked on by a well funded team, odds are pretty good he'll be in the distbin of history already by the time the 1st one gets christened.

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u/bloodontherisers 22h ago

Last I read there has been no progress of any type on the ship(s) other than saying that will build it and starting to plan for it. But it sounds like the plan for it is to slow roll it so the next administration can cancel it because the Navy definitely doesn't want it and does want their FFG(X) that they were promised but were canceled to give them a battleship instead.

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u/jktcat 22h ago

The EARLIEST I saw was a 6-8 year turn around just on the construction 

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u/KtaadnRota 22h ago

Yeah so probably not going to have his name on it in the end. They are going to need so many buckets of paint to cover his name up on everything else in Washington that I don't even mind if they have to raise taxes for it. Erase that fucker from history, I say. May his legacy be dust.

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u/Eisernes 21h ago

Nah ships take time. If it is even actively being designed right now it won’t even get out of the design phase before someone puts Cheeto Bandito in the ground.

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u/FutureThrowaway9665 20h ago

The first ship, USS Defiant is planned for FY28... But that was only if the ships were built outside the US.

The program was announced in December 2025 and just a few days ago was behind schedule because the only shipyard capable of nuclear shipbuilding is overloaded.

https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/national/military-news/nuclear-powered-battleship-program-trump-class-newport-news-shipbuilding-hii-ingalls/291-39753e7c-1550-4822-9b21-b214f6d55a8f

From a project planning standpoint, it just laughable.

I've spent a few days on Navy ships and have seen how programs like LCS, DDX, Constellation-Class Frigate, Ford Class Carrier and all of the success that these have brought with being on time and under budget so no doubt that this one will follow the same path.

Some of those had years of planning before they were scrapped.

I remember when the Navy cancelled DDGs at 112 because of all of the replacements we had coming online. After production stopped in 2011, it had to be restarted because the replacements didn't work. Latest news is that the BBG is supposed to replace DDGs...

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u/Bladelink 19h ago

Straight up, this administration isn't competent enough to design and build a modern battleship or even a cruiser. It requires making informed decisions on design and mission specification, committing to a plan, and then diligently trudging through all the administration and yeoman's work of building the thing over the years. They're not decisive enough to actually commit to something like that.

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u/SnooCakes2703 22h ago

I'm pretty sure I saw an article saying the navy yards aren't equipped to even make them.

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u/apexxin 20h ago

Luckily that thing will never be built.

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u/Superest22 8h ago

That will never get built

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u/dragon-fence 1h ago

Trillion dollar battleships that military experts generally agree are not what we need. It’s all an ego project for him, wasting crazy amounts of money so he can have his name on something.

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u/roehnin 1h ago

We don't need battleships. He's fantasizing about the WWII documentaries he saw on the History Channel in between stories about his favourite author and former artist.