Surface Navy 2026: HII CEO ‘not concerned' about proposed battleship plans' impact on carrier block buy

Aircraft carrier Enterprise is shown here under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding. The shipbuilder says carriers will still be part of the new navy fleet. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

Chris Kastner, the CEO of HII, said there appears to be room for both aircraft carriers and battleships in the proposed Trump administration's Golden Fleet.

“It's clear the navy wants both,” Kastner said on 8 January during a roundtable discussion with the media in advance of the Surface Navy Association National Symposium 2026, which started on 13 January in Arlington, Virginia.

“I think they're both part of the Golden Fleet,” he added.

However, he noted, “We learned of the battleship announcement when you did. We were not brought into that to evaluate alternatives. That's been a navy-led project. We'll learn a lot more about that over the next 30 to 60 days on what our involvement will be. I think we will [be involved], because we're involved in [the] DDG(X) design effort. They'll draw upon that expertise, and we'll participate in the initial design concepts with the navy.”

Asked if battleship acquisition could supersede a future aircraft carrier block buy, Kastner said, “I'm not concerned about that.”

Defence analysts have predicted the first-of-class battleship could cost as much as an aircraft carrier.

For more information about such analysis, please see First Trump-class battleship will cost as much as aircraft carrier, predicts analyst .

Asked what details he expects to learn about the proposed battleships, Kastner said, “What the capabilities are, what the requirements are, [and] what the design schedule needs to be.”