geez. A US President saying this to the troops who he was rallying with and silence from the press (??).
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-future-aircraft-carriers-are-going-to-use-steam-2019-5
............ During Tuesday's talk, Trump polled US 7th Fleet troops aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp, asking the crowd of sailors and Marines which was better, steam or electromagnetic catapults.
The troops overwhelmingly supported the use of steam; however, there were some who cheered for the newer system.
Trump — a staunch proponent of traditional steam catapults that are less complex than the alternatives, which he believes a person must be "Albert Einstein" to fully understand and operate — quipped that service members who supported the use of electromagnetic catapults were working for the enemy.
As he has done many times throughout his presidency, Trump championed the use of steam catapults to launch aircraft from the Navy's new carriers.
"Steam's only worked for about 65 years perfectly," the president explained. "They have a $900 million cost overrun on this crazy electric catapult. I said, 'What was wrong with steam?'"
"We want to go with steam," he further remarked. "They are always coming up with new ideas ... They want to show next, next, next. And we all want innovation, but it's too much. There's never been anything like the steam catapult."
Read more: The Navy's new $13 billion supercarriers have a high-tech feature that is apparently driving Trump crazy
He argued that the "delicate" electromagnetic catapults are more expensive, less likely to hold up in battle and no more efficient than the steam catapults.
"I think I'm going to put an order — when we build a new aircraft carrier, we're going to use steam," he said, suggesting a radical overhaul to a key Navy research and development project.
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