US Defense — 2026-08-06

First Trump-Class Battleship Could Cost $23.4 Billion Says Congressional Budget Office

BLUFCBO's $275 billion price tag arms Senate skeptics with the fiscal leverage to force design concessions or delay the 2028 order decision for the Trump-class program.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the lead Trump-class battleship (BBGN) at $23.4 billion, with the 15-ship program totaling roughly $275 billion, in a report published Wednesday and requested by Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Merkley 12. CBO based the figure on a 35,000-ton nuclear-powered hull, more than three and a half times the size of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, and said the subsequent 14 ships would average $18 billion apiece 13. The Navy's own budget documents put the ship's displacement range at 35,000 to 41,000 tons, and CBO said a 41,000-ton design would raise the lead ship's cost by 16 percent 3. CBO said a conventionally powered version would run about 13 percent cheaper at roughly $243 billion for the full program, versus $275 billion for the nuclear variant, and noted the ship is planned to carry the nuclear-armed SLCM-N cruise missile 134. The estimate assumes an order date of 2028, purchase of 15 ships through 2056, and final assembly at a single yard with other yards building sections 13.

Analysis
The CBO estimate, drawn from a single report requested by Senate Budget Committee Democrat Jeff Merkley and merely relayed by USNI News, Breaking Defense, and Navy Times without independent sourcing, hands battleship skeptics an affordability weapon ahead of the 2028 order decision. The $275 billion program figure collides with the Navy's push to double surface-combatant spending, and the 13 percent nuclear-versus-conventional cost gap sets up a design fight bearing directly on whether SLCM-N integration proceeds as planned. Displacement uncertainty between 35,000 and 41,000 tons leaves the headline number a floor rather than a ceiling. Coming from a program skeptic, the estimate may function as a negotiating instrument to constrain or reshape the battleship rather than a neutral engineering forecast, feeding congressional interest in a cheaper next-generation destroyer as a hedge against further cost growth.

5 sources

First Trump-class Battleship Could Cost $23.4B, Says CBO - USNI News
The Navy's New Battleship Program: Costs and Implications for the Shipbuilding Industrial Base - Congressional Budget Office
First Trump-class battleship could cost more than $23B: CBO - Breaking Defense
Trump-class battleship program will cost $275 billion, CBO report says - Navy Times
The Navy's New Battleship Program: Costs and Implications for the Shipbuilding Industrial Base - Congressional Budget Office