President Donald Trump has announced that the US will commission a new series of heavily armed Navy 'battleships' named after himself, as part of a revamped 'Golden Fleet'.
Construction on the Trump Class USS Defiant ships, which will be equipped to carry an array of weapons, is expected to begin soon, with Trump saying they will be operational in two-and-a-half years.
The announcement is part of a larger planned expansion of the US Navy by President Trump in both manned and unmanned vessels, including larger missile-armed warships and smaller vessels.
Officials have warned that the US currently lags behind China in both shipbuilding capacity and total output.
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida alongside defence secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan on Monday, Trump said he approved the construction of two new battleships to start, with a plan to build up to 25.
They'll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far, 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built, Trump said.
Once completed, Trump said the armed vessels would be equipped to carry hypersonic and 'extremely lethal' weapons, and would be the flagships of the US Navy.
Trump, who spoke while flanked on both sides with posters of renderings of the 'Trump class' ships, said the vessels would be built domestically, and their construction would create 'thousands' of jobs.
In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Phelan said that Trump had specifically asked for a 'big, beautiful' battleship-type vessel as part of the fleet, which will also include dozens of support and transport vessels.
The president's announcement also comes as US naval and air assets have surged to the Caribbean amid rising tensions with Venezuela. The US started attacking vessels in September that were alleged to be carrying drugs, with strikes leaving at least 100 people dead. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump claimed that thousands of American lives had been saved because of the boat strikes by stopping lethal drugs from entering the US.
The attacks have been criticised by some experts, who said they could violate international laws governing armed conflict.
