This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge.
America is back in the Americas.
President Trump’s Monroe Doctrine 2.0 plan, focused on hemispheric defense, centers on securing the homeland and the wider Western Hemisphere. The first visible military reposturing came with Trump’s announcement of the Golden Dome continental missile defense shield, followed by renewed pressure on Venezuelan narco-terror networks and new attention on far-left political influence operations being exported from South America. Trump has also worked to wind down foreign conflicts, recently stating that he deserves credit for ending six or seven wars in his first months in office. He is now attempting to end the Ukraine-Russia war. If he succeeds, hemispheric defense will move into high gear.
Prioritizing the Western Hemisphere after decades of endless wars in the Middle East may also require upgrading America’s naval fleet, as the proliferation of hypersonic weapons and drones by foreign adversaries could render some warships in the current fleet obsolete.
The replacement fleet of next-generation warships, referred to internally as the “Golden Fleet” by senior White House and Navy officials, is intended to secure the Western Hemisphere as the world moves toward a bipolar state in the 2030s, repel Chinese influence in the Americas, and maintain a naval edge in the Pacific theater, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.
At the center of the Golden Fleet are plans for a 15,000 to 20,000-ton “future battleship” equipped with long-range, hypersonic missiles, described as the modern equivalent of the World War II battleship. Instead of cannons, these next-gen warships will be optimized for missile warfare.
Here’s more from WSJ:
Under the Golden Fleet concept, the Navy wants to move away from a specific number of ships as a goal, Clark said. Instead, officials will focus on a fleet of roughly 280-300 crewed ships, plus large numbers of unmanned vessels—called “robotic and autonomous systems”—to bridge the gap. The drone ships would act as “hedge forces” in each maritime theater to make up the difference between what the fleet can do day-to-day and what might be needed in conflict, Clark said.
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Senior Navy officials see alignment between their own goals and the president’s interests, said Clark, who is involved in Navy wargames meant to inform the Golden Fleet. The Navy has found that today’s fleet is struggling to keep up with modern threats, for example the Yemen-based Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Clark said.
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Clark acknowledged that it could take many years to build new, large warships from scratch, and the ship likely wouldn’t see the light of day until after Trump leaves office. Plans for a replacement cruiser, the canceled CG(X) program, indicate such a ship would take five years to design and another five to seven years to build, according to a former official.
Next-gen battleships have been on Trump’s mind for some time. In late September, while addressing military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, the president spoke about the urgent need for new battleships.