Oh Dear……. Where does one start?
Well, “Dear Donald” is not the only one! There has been/is/and will be, a tendency for a politician (or in this instance a businessman with a felony conviction turned politician) to dictate to professional military staff, decisions that properly lie within the competence of those professional persons – decisions that those military officers would not take.
In my opinion, the “Trump class battleship” (https://seekingalpha.com/news/4534515-trump-unveils-plans-for-new-trump-class-battleship) & (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump-class_battleship) is one of them!
Defence strategy is shaped by conflict. A nation (such as Ukraine) develops war-fighting capability based on the events that take place on the battlefield. Nations not engaged in the conflict take note and their military staffs adapt their own plans accordingly.
The big development of the Russian-Ukraine war (sorry, Special Military Operation) has been in the area of drone technology and more broadly of unmanned weaponry and control. The development of AI and drones that can be controlled by AI will dominate the battlefields of the future.
For naval warfare this is likely to mean a reduction in size of warships from the present. This will herald a change in direction that has held sway since the death of Queen Victoria!
This pattern can be shown in the three ships commissioned as Her Majesty’s Ship Daring (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Daring_(1893)), His Majesty’s Ship Daring (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Daring_(H16)), Her Majesty’s Ship Daring (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Daring_(D05)) and currently Her/His Majesty’s Ship Daring (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Daring_(D32)).
As you can see, there has been a steady increase in size, displacement, capability and of course cost over the period (1893 to 2009).
Interestingly, the reduction has already begun as D32’s complement of 191 is down from D05’s complement of 308.
You see, automation and “Artificial Intelligence” will enable warships to operate without crews. This has several advantages: Firstly, recruitment, training and retention of crews is no longer much of an issue. Secondly, space and weight that would have to been allocated for crew accommodation and stores (food and other resources such as galleys and laundries) can be allocated to areas such as propulsion and weapons. Power requirements would change and these will likely increase. This because although heating, air-conditioning, lighting and cooking are no longer required, the weapons technology of the future, lasers, rail-guns and particle beam weapons will require huge amounts of electricity.
One particular advantage of automation and AI and the elimination of manned vessels will be the ridiculous situation currently pertaining in the Royal Navy. This is having women as part of the crew.
Allow me to cite a problem: D32 has a 114 mm Mk 8 gun. It is a machine fed weapon. Electro-mechanical devices malfunction and when a Mark 8 gun malfunctions circumstances can arise where the cased ammunition has to be removed from around the breach of the gun. As you can see the cased ammunition used by the Royal Navy’s Mark 8 gun (http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_45-55_mk8.php) is not light! The ammunition weights up to 36.99 kg or 81.55 pounds or in everyday measurement, five stone, twelve pounds!
FACT: The average woman is physically incapable of handling such rounds when she is underneath the breach area and has to handle the round as it appears through the deck-head and manhandle it onto the deck (without dropping it). BTW: The ship will generally be underway in a seaway when this has to be done! NB: It was politicians who insisted on this ridiculous state of affairs after ignoring the repeated advice of men some of whom actually had to carry out such tasks!
I do NOT expect the USS Defiant to be commissioned. I do not see a Trump like presidency continuing after 2029. Instead the USS Defiant will join the many hypothetical battleships projected and planned but never built!