President Donald Trump has signed a directive forcing the U.S. Navy to strip modern electromagnetic launch systems out of its newest aircraft carriers and go back to traditional steam power.
If you've followed defense news over the last decade, this won't shock you. Trump has railed against the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) since his first term in office. He famously complained that the digital technology requires "Albert Einstein" to fix, contrasting it with old-school steam systems that he believes sailors can repair with basic tools. Now, that long-running personal grievance has turned into a formal presidential order.
The directive gives the Pentagon and the Navy just two months to draft plans to remove EMALS and electromagnetic weapons elevators from the fourth Ford-class carrier, the future USS Doris Miller. The first three ships in the class—the USS Gerald R. Ford, the USS John F. Kennedy, and the USS Enterprise—will keep their high-tech gear. But for the Doris Miller and subsequent hulls, the military faces a massive engineering overhaul.
Critics point out that this reversal will cost billions of dollars and introduce severe schedule delays. General Atomics, the manufacturer building EMALS, warned that work on the Doris Miller's catapults and arresting gear is already roughly halfway complete. Tearing that out to install steam-powered infrastructure creates massive integration risks.
Beyond the financial hit, the decision forces a step backward in core capabilities. EMALS was developed specifically for Ford-class carriers to provide smoother acceleration, precise launch control, and the ability to launch a wider variety of aircraft, from heavy strike fighters to lightweight unmanned aerial systems. It also cuts down on manpower. On the USS Gerald R. Ford, EMALS reduced the number of sailors needed to operate the catapults from about a dozen down to just two.
That reduction matters right now. The Navy is currently grappling with severe personnel shortages and thousands of unfilled billets across its fleet. Reverting to steam power means adding more sailors back onto the flight deck to manage the mechanical systems, compounding existing crew fatigue and retention struggles.
Yet, despite the technological step back and the warnings from defense contractors, the order is moving forward. As the military juggles tight budgets and complex global deployments, this high-stakes shift from magnets back to steam highlights a deep friction point between presidential directives and modern naval engineering.
