Trump orders the Navy to return to an older system of launching jets off aircraft carriers

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump is ordering the U.S. Navy to remove the advanced system used to launch fighter jets from its newest type of aircraft carrier and return to using older steam catapults that he has long said he prefers, according to a directive issued Thursday. The new mandate would likely cost billions of dollars and revert the Navy's most advanced ships to a system that takes more sailors to operate and is more difficult to maintain. The memo directs the Pentagon and the Navy to present Trump with plans to remove the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, also known as EMALS, within two months. It also says the Ford-class carrier's electromagnetic weapons elevators should be replaced. Trump's ire with the new technology goes back to at least 2017 in his first term and he claimed the new system is not good and doesn't have the power and declared, You're going to goddamned steam. Trump's memo directs the fourth Ford-class carrier, the USS Doris Miller, to be the first ship to include the new changes. That will leave the USS Gerald R. Ford, as well as the forthcoming USS John F. Kennedy and USS Enterprise, untouched. General Atomics told The Associated Press in an email that the decision not to proceed with the system on USS Doris Miller warrants careful reconsideration. General Atomics said the work on the Doris Miller's catapults and arresting gear was already halfway complete and changing course now would introduce significant cost, schedule, and integration risks. EMALS aboard the USS Ford cut the number of sailors need to operate the catapults from about a dozen to two. The newest Chinese aircraft carriers employ electromagnetic catapults and France said it plans to use the system on its new carrier. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth estimated last month that the war's cost grew to $37.5 billion.