President Donald Trump directed the secretary of defense to revert aircraft carriers to steam-powered aircraft catapult launchers and hydraulic weapons elevators, consider foreign-built warships, and establish a fifth public shipyard in a presidential memo released on Thursday. Trump said these moves are needed due to a series of shipbuilding setbacks caused by overly complex designs and iterative design change procedures causing cost growth, delays and cancellations. “The lack of capacity and competition among shipbuilders has resulted in large backlogs of…
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