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.
Trump has said Jones served in the Navy for 25 years and knew a lot about steam catapults. But Navy officials have been unable to find the sailor. 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.
"If we were to go back to steam and hydraulics with the elevators, we need to really understand the total cost of that. 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.
The story goes back to 2017, when Trump visited the USS Gerald R Ford in Virginia during his first term as president.
The USS Gerald R Ford is the largest aircraft carrier in the world. It cost around $19 billion to build and was the first ship of its class. However, the project faced several problems such as it took years longer than planned and cost billions of dollars more than expected. It also used new technology that had not been fully tested before.
During a speech in April 2019, Trump recalled asking officials to bring him the people who worked on the catapults. He said one sailor told him that the Navy had made a mistake by moving away from steam catapults. The sailor reportedly argued that the older system was easier to repair.
Trump later said the sailor told him that fixing an electric catapult could require experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). On the other hand, a steam catapult could be repaired with tools such as a hammer and a blowtorch, he said.
After Trump's meeting with the sailor, Navy officials tried to explain why the service had chosen electric catapults. They also warned that replacing the systems would be difficult.
Trump raised the issue again in November 2018. During a Thanksgiving call with sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, he asked its commanding officer about steam and electric catapults. The ship's commander at the time, Captain Patrick Hannifin, said he preferred the electric system.
Trump argued that operating the newer system required someone as intelligent as Albert Einstein. To which Hannifin responded, "You sort of have to be Albert Einstein to run the nuclear power plants that we have here as well, but we're doing that very well".
"Steam catapults have been out of production for decades—no one makes them anymore," said Hunter Stires, the maritime strategist to former Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro.
Then again, Trump mentioned Bill Jones at a campaign rally in Iowa in January 2024. In February 2025, Trump again questioned the electric catapults while swearing in Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. In August 2026, Trump signed a national security memorandum directing the Navy to study the cost and timeline for bringing back steam catapults and hydraulic elevators. The changes would apply to the future aircraft carrier CVN 81, which is expected to join the fleet in 2034.
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