Last week, President Donald Trump ordered the Navy to return to steam power for its airplane-launching catapults, reversing the transition to modern electromagnetic systems and, according to former naval officer and Hudson Institute senior fellow Bryan Clark, pushing the U.S. fleet back into the 19th century. Clark said Trump’s order “risks crippling fleet readiness — already at its lowest point in decades.”

In the Washington Post, Clark wrote that “after six months of war against Iran, the Pentagon has extended two carrier deployments to more than 260 days and will probably do the same with their replacements. The government’s repair yards will take years to work through the maintenance backlog, and many of the best sailors will almost certainly leave for better options. Combine that with budget uncertainty, and the Navy could go months with only one carrier deployed overseas during each of the next few years.” He said Trump’s decision would worsen that situation at a time when the service is already juggling long deployments, shipyard delays and retention pressure.

Clark said redesigning the USS Doris Miller, which is already under construction, to replace electromagnetic catapults with steam systems would intensify the readiness crisis. He said the change is expected to cost billions of dollars and delay the ship’s launch into the late 2030s, and that outcome would depend on whether the Navy can persuade a manufacturer to begin producing steam catapults again after nearly three decades.

He said delayed production would reduce the fleet to 10 aircraft carriers next year, and that design delays could leave the Navy with just nine carriers during the next decade. As a result, Clark wrote, “the Navy would need to work the smaller force harder, wearing out its people and equipment faster, and accelerating the readiness decline.”

Clark said the Navy adopted electromagnetic catapults in its new carriers for the same reason rail lines shifted from steam to electric propulsion during the 20th century: electric power has fewer moving parts, is more reliable, costs less and can provide higher speeds than steam power. He added that the United States is not alone in moving to electromagnetic catapults, noting that China and France, the other two countries with catapult-equipped carriers, have adopted the technology.

The Trump administration has said it prioritizes warfighting and lethality in military policy. Clark argued that if steam catapults truly improved operations, the Navy would have a case for making the switch. Instead, he said recent evidence shows steam is the wrong choice. He pointed to the USS Gerald R. Ford, which completed an 11-month deployment that ended in May and was the longest for a carrier since the Vietnam War. During that deployment, Clark said, the ship conducted more than 11,000 aircraft launches using electromagnetic catapults, more than carriers with steam systems could achieve.

Clark also argued that one of the main advantages of electromagnetic catapults is lower cost and reduced personnel requirements. With the Navy running out of operating funds and retention likely to decline after the war with Iran, he said the fleet must make the most of every dollar and every sailor.

He cited the USS Ford as an example, saying it requires roughly 500 fewer crew members than earlier carriers, largely because it is an all-electric ship outside the engine room. Older carriers, he said, used steam not only for catapults but also for other functions aboard the ship, including cooking equipment and water purification. The valves, pressure regulators and piping needed for those steam services create a heavy maintenance burden, and steam catapults themselves have so many moving parts and failure points that they require about 10 more sailors per catapult than electromagnetic systems do. A modern carrier has four catapults.

Clark said personnel are the most expensive part of operating a ship, and that the Ford’s smaller crew and easier-to-maintain electrical systems make it about $100 million cheaper per year to operate than older carriers. He said that is equal to the cost of almost 100 Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Clark concluded that steam power was cutting-edge technology in the 19th century, but it is the wrong choice for a Pentagon that is emphasizing artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. He said the Navy should continue using electromagnetic catapults to keep the carrier fleet strong and provide more firepower, and that the savings could help refill the fleet’s weapons magazines.