Trump orders Navy to rip EMALS off next carrier, revert to steam

The order arrives as the Navy struggles to fill its ships with enough sailors. EMALS aboard the USS Ford cut the crew needed to operate the catapults from about a dozen to two. Reverting to steam, which requires more personnel, runs against the service's recruiting challenges. At the start of the year, the Navy had roughly 20,000 unfilled posts across the fleet.

The Pentagon faces its own funding pressures. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth estimated last month that the cost of the Iran war had risen to $37.5 billion, as Republicans prepared a $95 billion package to fund the military. The House narrowly adopted both measures. The Senate must act when it returns in September. Trump has proposed a $1.5 trillion defense budget, which Hegseth called a "generational investment."

The electromagnetic system's advantages include faster launch speeds, easier maintenance, and a smaller crew footprint. In February, the Navy said EMALS allowed the USS Ford to launch and recover aircraft at a higher rate than the older Nimitz-class ships. The newest Chinese aircraft carriers also use electromagnetic catapults. France has said it plans the same system for its new carrier.

General Atomics said the decision to remove EMALS from the Doris Miller "warrants careful reconsideration." Trump's own memo noted that constant design changes have "resulted in cost growth, delays, and cancellations" in Navy shipbuilding.