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,” the BBC reports.
Construction on the Trump-class USS Defiant ship, which will be equipped to carry an array of weapons, is expected to begin soon, with Trump saying the first vessels 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.
