Trump's 'Golden Fleet' of nuclear battleships carries a $275 billion price tag, CBO estimates

The Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday put a price on President Donald Trump's proposed fleet of nuclear-powered battleships: roughly $275 billion to build 15 vessels, with the first ship alone costing about $23.4 billion. Trump announced the plan in December 2025, proposing a new class of nuclear-powered guided-missile battleships for the U.S. Navy. The vessels, known as the Trump class and designated BBG(X) in Navy documents, would begin with a lead ship named USS Defiant (BBG-1), followed by a second, as-yet-unnamed vessel. The president has described the planned fleet as a "Golden Fleet." The estimate lands at a sensitive moment. According to reports, the per-ship cost would place the battleships in the same price range as the Navy's Ford-class aircraft carriers, and questions are already being raised about whether American shipyards have the capacity to build them. Analysts have also warned the program could strain the same workforce and supply chain behind the $368 billion AUKUS submarine pact with Australia.

The CBO's $275 billion price tag for the Golden Fleet

The Congressional Budget Office released an estimate on Wednesday putting the total construction cost of President Donald Trump's proposed nuclear-powered battleship program at roughly $275 billion. The figure covers a planned fleet of 15 ships and, according to the CBO's preliminary analysis, extends through 2056.

The program is the centerpiece of what Trump has called a "Golden Fleet" for the U.S. Navy. He announced the proposal in December 2025, unveiling a new class of nuclear-powered guided-missile battleships designated BBG(X) and known as the Trump class. The class would begin with a lead ship, USS Defiant (BBG-1), followed by a second vessel that has not yet been named.

The CBO estimated the first Trump-class battleship could cost about $23.4 billion, with the 14 follow-on ships the Navy plans to buy averaging about $18 billion each. According to reports, that per-ship price would place the vessels in a similar range to the Navy's Ford-class aircraft carriers, and the ships would be the largest battleships the Navy has built since World War II.

The estimate is the first independent cost assessment of a proposal Trump has promoted as a revival of American naval power. It arrives as the administration presses for a larger fleet, and it gives Congress an early benchmark for a program that would rank among the most expensive shipbuilding efforts in the Navy's history.

What the Trump-class battleships would be

The proposal, unveiled by President Donald Trump in December 2025, calls for a new class of nuclear-powered guided-missile battleships for the U.S. Navy. The vessels are known as the Trump class and appear in Navy documents under the designations BBG(X) or BBGN. Together, the planned 15 ships would form what Trump has described as a "Golden Fleet."

The class would begin with a lead ship named USS Defiant (BBG-1), followed by a second vessel that has not yet been named. The remaining ships in the program have not been publicly identified.

If built as proposed, the warships would be the Navy's largest battleships since World War II, according to reporting on the plan. Their nuclear propulsion and guided-missile armament would set them apart from the battleships of that earlier era, which relied on conventional power and large naval guns.

The Trump administration has framed the class as the centerpiece of a broader shipbuilding push. The battleships would join a fleet that already includes the Navy's Ford-class aircraft carriers, which occupy a comparable price range per vessel, according to reports. For now, the class exists only on paper: the Navy has not announced when construction of the USS Defiant would begin or when the ships would enter service.

Breaking down the numbers, ship by ship

The Congressional Budget Office's estimate breaks the program into two tiers. The lead ship, USS Defiant (BBG-1), is projected to cost about $23.4 billion — a figure that reflects the design work, tooling and first-of-class engineering that typically burden the opening vessel in any new warship line. The 14 follow-on ships the Navy plans to buy would average about $18 billion each, according to the CBO's preliminary analysis. Taken together, those figures produce the headline total: roughly $275 billion in construction costs, spread across a building schedule the estimate projects through 2056.

That three-decade horizon matters. The CBO figure is not a single budget request but a projection of cumulative spending over the life of the program, meaning the annual cost would depend heavily on how quickly the Navy moves from one ship to the next. Slower production would push the per-ship average up; faster production would concentrate the spending into fewer years.

The numbers also invite comparison with the Navy's existing big-deck programs. According to reporting on the CBO findings, the per-ship estimates place the Trump-class battleships in a similar price range to the Navy's Ford-class aircraft carriers, the most expensive warships the service currently builds. That would make each of the 15 planned vessels among the costliest single hulls ever ordered for the fleet — before accounting for the nuclear reactors, weapons and operating costs that sit outside the CBO's construction-only estimate.

Shipyard capacity doubts and the cost debate

The CBO's estimate has sharpened a question that has followed the proposal since its announcement: whether American shipyards could physically build the vessels even if Congress funded them. Reporting on the findings raised doubts about whether U.S. shipyards have sufficient capacity to take on a program of this scale, with the ships projected to be the Navy's largest battleships since World War II, according to those reports.

The cost figures have also fed a broader argument about what the fleet represents. Commentary on the plan has split between two readings. One holds that the battleships are a necessary defense upgrade, a response to the demands placed on a Navy being asked to do more with aging hulls. The other treats the program as an excessively costly vanity project, pointing to the roughly $275 billion construction bill and the per-ship price tags that, reporting noted, would place the vessels in a similar range to the Navy's Ford-class aircraft carriers.

Neither side of that debate is settled by the CBO document itself, which is a cost estimate rather than a judgment on the fleet's strategic value. But the estimate has given both camps harder numbers to argue from, and it has turned shipyard capacity from an abstract concern into a central test of whether the plan is buildable at all.

What the plan could mean for AUKUS

The battleship proposal has also raised concerns beyond U.S. shores, according to reporting on the plan. The Trump-class program has been identified as a risk to the AUKUS pact, the $368 billion submarine effort involving Australia, because it would draw on the same supply chain and workforce.

That overlap is the crux of the problem. Building large nuclear-powered warships requires specialized labor, industrial capacity and nuclear-propulsion components that are already committed to existing programs. Reporting suggests that adding 15 nuclear-powered battleships to the order book would put the AUKUS submarine timeline under direct pressure, since both efforts would compete for the same constrained pool of skilled workers and suppliers.

The concern has been raised in coverage of the proposal, including by The Australian, and remains a reported risk rather than a confirmed consequence. No official assessment has quantified how much delay, if any, the battleship program would impose on AUKUS deliveries.

For Australia, the stakes are significant. The pact's value rests on submarines arriving on schedule, and any slippage in the shared industrial base feeding that effort would be felt in Canberra as much as in Washington. Whether the Navy can run both programs in parallel without one cannibalizing the other is, for now, an open question — and one the plan's backers have yet to address publicly.

The questions the Navy has yet to answer

For all the detail in the CBO's preliminary estimate, the proposal leaves a long list of practical questions unanswered, and how they are resolved will determine whether the Golden Fleet is a program or a concept.

The first is timing. The CBO's estimate was released on a Wednesday, but no exact date has been specified, and the Navy has given no indication of when construction of the lead ship, USS Defiant, might begin or when any of the 15 planned vessels would enter service. Without a schedule, the through-2056 cost projection is difficult to test against reality.

The second is funding. The Navy has not explained how it intends to pay for a program estimated at roughly $275 billion within its existing shipbuilding budget, which is already stretched across submarines, destroyers and carriers.

The third is industrial. No shipyards have been publicly identified as builders of the Trump class, even as reporting on the CBO findings has questioned whether U.S. yards have the capacity for such large vessels. Nor has the Navy outlined any steps to prevent the program from drawing workers and suppliers away from the AUKUS submarine effort, which relies on the same workforce.

Finally, even the fleet's composition is incomplete: the second vessel after USS Defiant remains unnamed. Until the Navy fills in these gaps, the battleship plan will remain defined more by its price tag than by a path to the water.

1. December 2025

   President Donald Trump announced a proposed class of nuclear-powered guided-missile battleships for the U.S. Navy, designated BBG(X) and known as the Trump class.

2. Wednesday (date unspecified)

   The Congressional Budget Office released an estimate putting total construction costs of the proposed 15-ship battleship program at roughly $275 billion.

3. Through 2056

   The CBO's preliminary estimate covers construction costs extending through 2056.

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