The lead vessel, USS Defiant (BBG-1), is designed to be the "largest, deadliest, and most versatile" warship ever constructed, symbolizing a shift toward massive surface combatants intended for maritime dominance. 

Displacing between 30,000 and 40,000 tons, these ships will be approximately triple the size of current Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, which typically weigh around 9,000 tons. 

The President stated that the Navy would aim for a class of 20 to 25 ships, starting with the immediate construction of the first two vessels. 

This initiative represents a departure from recent naval trends that favored smaller, stealthier vessels, instead prioritizing size and visible power as a means of global deterrence.

“100 Times More Powerful”

The Trump class is engineered to integrate advanced deep-strike capabilities with revolutionary defensive systems. 

Key technical specifications include the potential for nuclear propulsion, enabling the high electrical output required for high-powered lasers, electronic railguns, and artificial intelligence integration. 

Armament will feature Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) hypersonic missiles, large missile magazines for superior firepower, and the Surface Launch Cruise Missile-Nuclear (SLCM-N). 

Trump claimed these vessels would be "100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built," although analysts suggest this phrasing is likely rhetorical. 

Beyond raw firepower, the ships are designed as command-and-control nodes, capable of "quarterbacking" fleet operations and managing integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) within carrier strike groups.

Industrial Mobilization and the 2.5-Year Barrier

To meet the President's ambitious delivery timetable, the Navy-led design team will collaborate with over 1,000 suppliers across nearly every U.S. state. 

Trump’s announcement specified starting construction "almost immediately" with a target of 2.5 years to completion. 

However, modern shipbuilding data suggests this timeline is mathematically and industrially improbable. 

Under current peacetime conditions, the design phase alone for a novel class of this scale typically takes 5 to 10 years. 

Even the Constellation-class frigate, which utilized an existing design to save time, has faced delays of over 3 years, with its first ship now expected 7 years after the initial contract.

Technical Integration and Workforce Gaps

The complexity of the Trump class—incorporating unproven systems like railguns and 600-kilowatt lasers—magnifies the risk of schedule slippage. 

For comparison, the Zumwalt-class destroyers, which were smaller at 15,000 tons, took 5 to 7 years per ship to build while suffering from massive cost overruns and tech-integration failures. 

Modern U.S. shipyards, such as Bath Iron Works and Huntington Ingalls, are currently optimized for steady production of existing designs like the Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51), which still requires 4 to 6 years from keel laying to commissioning. 

A 30-month build would require treated the project as a national emergency with WWII-level mobilization, including 24/7 labor shifts and unlimited funding, to overcome current supply chain vulnerabilities and skilled labor shortages.

Historical Precedents and Reality Checks

While the 2.5-year claim aligns with the construction time of the USS Iowa during the 1940s, that era benefited from a total war economy and significantly simpler mechanical systems. 

Modern warships are software-defined and require thousands of hours of sensor integration and cyber-hardening that did not exist in the 20th century. 

Government Accountability Office (GAO) findings indicate that Navy lead ships since 2007 have averaged 8 to 19 years from contract award to fleet delivery. 

Consequently, unless "built" refers only to a launched hull without its combat systems, or the Navy utilizes an existing hull for conversion, the 30-month operational goal remains outside the realm of contemporary industrial capacity.