President Donald Trump ordered the Navy to rip out the electromagnetic launch systems on its newest aircraft carriers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The move will force the Navy to revert to steam catapults, and the reversal is expected to cost billions, The Journal reported. Trump signed a national security memorandum on Thursday directing the change, U.S. officials told The Journal.
The order would involve removing the electromagnetic catapult systems used by ships in the Gerald R. Ford class of Navy aircraft carriers. It keeps the electric systems on three carriers already being built but forces a switch back to steam on the future USS Doris Miller and every carrier after it.
For nearly a decade, Trump has been airing a grievance about electric systems on ships. In a 2017 interview with Time, he said he told the Navy to go back to "godd— steam" after a sailor praised the older system during a ship visit in his first term.
He has kept up the criticism since, according to The Journal. The electromagnetic catapults are "not nearly as good, too complex," Trump said last month at a Pennsylvania conference.
The White House framed the reversal as a return to proven hardware. The decision "will result in carriers that are enabled by battle-tested steam and hydraulic systems," it said in a statement to The Journal. The statement added that the shift would "reactivate portions of the maritime industrial base that are easier to scale."
General Atomics, which builds the electromagnetic system, pushed back, however. The decision "warrants careful reconsideration," the company told The Journal, and warned that changing course now "would introduce significant cost, schedule, and integration risks" with its USS Doris Miller work nearly half finished.
The company also cautioned that the move could benefit rivals by "potentially creating opportunities for adversaries to close the capability gap," per The Journal.
Defense analysts questioned the logic of the cost. Bryan Clark, a naval expert with the Hudson Institute, told The Journal, "Electric is more reliable," and pointed to early Navy data that shows the old steam carriers that Trump prefers cost about $100 million a year more to operate than the new electric Ford-class carriers.