Trump Orders Navy to Build Ships Abroad, Reverts Carriers to Steam Catapults

⚓ PROCUREMENT — Mid-war, the Navy is being rebuilt around systems it retired decades ago. 📌 LOOK CLOSER: Steam catapults over EMALS signals the Navy lost confidence in the newer system under combat stress — EMALS failures on Ford-class carriers have been documented since 2017. Building abroad reflects domestic shipyard capacity too constrained to sustain attrition at current war tempo. Both moves trade long-term modernization for near-term reliability, a bet that this war runs longer than the industrial base can absorb.