Trump orders Navy to abandon carrier launch system, return to steam catapults

U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the Navy to abandon a complex system for launching jet fighters from its aircraft carriers and instead go back to using steam catapults, the White House said on Thursday.

Trump signed a national security memorandum directing the change, which would require the removal of the electromagnetic catapult system used on Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers and is expected to cost billions of dollars.

Huntington Ingalls HII.N is the primary contractor building Ford class aircraft carriers.

Trump has frequently criticized the Navy's electromagnetic launch system as being more expensive and not as effective as steam catapults.

"Billions of dollars more they spent on electric catapults and they're not good. They're not nearly as good, too complex," Trump said at a defense summit in Pennsylvania last month.