Trump orders Navy to replace magnetic catapults on aircraft carriers with steam-powered ones

President Donald Trump is ordering the U.S. Navy to replace newer magnetic catapults to launch fighter jets with steam-powered catapults, according to a directive issued on Thursday. 

According to the directive, the complex designs and repeated design change procedures have resulted in cost growth, delays and cancellation in shipbuilding. It gives the Secretary of War two months to develop a plan to replace the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Weapons Elevators with steam and hydraulic systems.

The mandate is expected to cost billions, according to the Associated Press. 

Trump has been critical of the technology as far back as his first term, claiming the newer systems lack the power of the older steam-powered launchers. 

Trump's order designates the fourth Ford-class carrier, the USS Doris Miller, to be the first ship to receive the new changes. General Atomics, the company that makes the electromagnetic launchers, told the Associated Press that the decision not to implement the newer systems "warrants careful consideration."