WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Seapower and Projections Forces Subcommittee Ranking Member Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) released the following statement in response to a recently released report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) detailing the significantly increased cost estimate for the Trump-class battleship program.

“This week’s Congressional Budget Office (CBO) assessment of the Trump-class battleship’s cost is the latest indication that this program is an ill-conceived vanity project that will have a net negative impact of Navy force design and the American shipbuilding industrial base. CBO, a nonpartisan and independent agency, assessed that the first-in-class ship will cost a staggering $23.4 billion, that is a significant increase from the $15.1 billion estimated by the Navy in April. The agency further assessed that the full slate of 15 ships would cost the government $275 billion through 2056. This program will inevitably take resources away from other platforms our services need, such as destroyers, amphibious vessels, aircraft carriers, and unmanned vessels, and will continue to increase the budget deficit and provide further excuses to cut non-defense spending already slashed by this administration.

“This program was first announced by the president at Mar-a-Lago in December 2025 as a rendering on a poster board. Since then, its cost has ballooned along with its list of requirements, rendering it virtually unbuildable. That alone is reason enough to hit pause. Outside of cost, the CBO projects the Navy would also have to dramatically overhaul its surface fleet shipbuilding plan and the final construction of these ships would affect delivery of already-delayed aircraft carriers.

“The Navy and Congress continue to make strides in expanding our shipbuilding capacity and production cadence, but those resources should not be sunk into a program that lacks coherent, strategic justification or a buildable design. Congress cannot sit idle in the face of financial mismanagement. That is why we offered amendments striking battleship funding from the FY27 National Defense Authorization Act and the Senate Armed Services Committee, in bipartisan fashion, declined to include the $1 billion requested for the battleship. The battleship is not the future of the Navy, it is a misguided, ego-driven mistake that will cost billions and do little to make us more secure.” 

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