Trump wants to replace the new EMALS aircraft launch system on carriers with old steam systems even though steam systems are worse and would require rebuilding ships.
In the 1980s, the Reagan administration so focused on building more naval ships, that they let commercial shipbuilding move overseas, ending subsidies. Naval ship demand will go up and down and is not consistent; the base of a country’s ship building industry will need to be commercial. By allowing, and helping by ending the subsidies, US commercial shipbuilding to move overseas, the Reagen administration ultimately greatly weakened US shipbuilding capacity despite building a lot of naval ships. China has a strong industrial base for shipbuilding because they build commercial ships.
Trump appears to be single-handedly deciding to use an old aircraft carrier launch system over the Navy’s preference. He doesn’t seem to have a good reason to do this.
Trump wants to force a currently constructed carrier that plans on using an electromagnetic launch system back on the old steam system. The new system should have higher up-times, launch planes faster, have the ability to launch heavier planes, have the ability to launch lighter planes, and have simpler support systems. Trump’s decision appears to make no sense on the surface, but, the Navy’s test of the new system has not been released to the public, and while the Navy said good things about the test, they could be misleading or lying.
Anyone who followed Iran a little bit knew that Iran was likely to close the Strait of Hormuz. The Navy knew that US bases anywhere near Iran and the Strait would have minimum use because the US can’t stop enough Iranian drones and missiles. The Navy also knew that this would put difficult logistic pressures on supplying carriers in a conflict that wasn’t real quick. Yet, there seems to have been completely inadequate preparation for this logistics. This is because the president was convinced by the Secretary of Defense, Israel, and his own foolishness that the Strait would not be closed and the conflict would be quick. The problems we are seeing are partly due to a lack of preparation for a long conflict, even though that was a likely outcome and the president should have known this.
Iran could hit a US carrier with a hypersonic missile, but hitting a moving carrier and not getting shot down while the missile itself it moving and partially blinded by the plasma created by its extreme speeds…is very difficult, and it’s not clear how many of these missiles Iran has, or if they work.