US President Donald Trump wants the US Navy to consider using the older steam-powered system again to launch fighter jets from aircraft carriers instead of the newer electric system.
The order came after a conversation with a sailor named Bill Jones, who reportedly convinced Trump that the older technology was better than today’s electric systems. But Navy officials have been unable to find the sailor. “If we were to go back to steam and hydraulics with the elevators, we need to really understand the total cost of that. The sailor reportedly argued that the older system was easier to repair.
Trump has said Jones served in the Navy for 25 years and knew a lot about steam catapults. The story goes back to 2017, when Trump visited the USS Gerald R Ford in Virginia during his first term as president. During a speech in April 2019, Trump recalled asking officials to bring him the people who worked on the catapults.
They want to understand what he told Trump that led the president to consider major changes to one of the Navy’s most expensive military programmes, according to the Wall Street Journal report. That will be a significant design change,” said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle at a conference in Reno, according to USNI News . A Navy spokesperson said the service could not accurately find the sailor in its records without more details, such as his date of birth. He said one sailor told him that the Navy had made a mistake by moving away from steam catapults.
