DOGE against aircraft carriers: how Elon Musk is giving the US Navy nightmares

Given that Elon Musk is tech-savvy and prefers cheap but high-tech unmanned systems, we can expect him to soon turn his sights on America's aircraft carriers, which have long exceeded all conceivable budget constraints.

Elon Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) appear to be doing exactly what President Donald Trump and his supporters have been demanding of them: cutting government spending. This is according to an article by geopolitical analyst Brandon J. Weichert, translated by Focus.

So far, the media has focused on cuts to agencies like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the debate over the constitutionality of such actions. But even before Trump took office, Musk made it clear that he wanted to review military spending. On his X account, he denounced wasteful programs like the Pentagon’s beloved F-35 Lightning II, calling it too expensive and outdated in an age of unmanned combat systems.

Many in the US defense community fear that the cost-cutting drive launched by Trump and Musk through DOGE could backfire on the F-35 program, which has been underperforming and over-budget for 20 years. To be fair, the aircraft remains a highly effective system. But in an era of cost-cutting, it simply isn’t worth its price tag and has yet to live up to expectations.

However, there is an even more expensive system that could end up in Musk’s scrapyard. It is the US Navy’s famous but aging Ford-class aircraft carrier. Designed as the most advanced ship for the high seas, to replace the legendary US Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, the Ford-class aircraft carrier has far exceeded its financial and time constraints. Back in 2017, it faced delays due to technical issues. At the time, this posed serious problems for the US Navy and its ability to deter adversaries.

The first ship of this class, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), is currently serving in the fleet. But the Navy is blowing the dust off it. There was talk of deploying it to the eastern Mediterranean immediately after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. However, concerns immediately arose that the Ford would not be able to get too close to the coastline of the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is based, due to the threat that the militants would deploy their network of anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs). Similar concerns arose as the Ford approached the shores of Lebanon, where the Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah has an even more sophisticated set of air defense systems at its disposal.

It's a familiar picture.

Even with the older, but still expensive, Nimitz-class carriers, the Houthi rebels in Yemen keep these expensive platforms over the horizon with ASB missiles, making it seriously difficult to fight the Houthis. The Ford-class carriers cost about $13 billion to build and hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain, and even if they are reduced in price in the future (as the Navy insists), they will still be prohibitively expensive.

Cheap A2/AD Systems Against Carriers

Meanwhile, these carriers are held hostage by air defense missiles that cost a fraction of what it costs the Navy to build and maintain the carriers themselves. And this is in confrontation with non-state actors such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Against a superpower such as the People's Republic of China, the situation will be much worse.

China has developed and deployed what is perhaps the world's most comprehensive access denial/admission (A2/AD) system, equipped with a vast array of relatively cheap and easy-to-produce DF-21D and DF-26 ASB “carrier killer” missiles. These systems, as their name suggests, are specifically designed to hold expensive American ships like the Ford class hostage.

Beijing is aware of the high cost of American aircraft carriers and that Washington, with its aging and expensive defense industrial base, cannot afford to risk damaging or destroying them. Therefore, the Americans will most likely continue to keep the bulk of their forces at a safe distance, which means that the US will not be able to effectively deploy its combat aircraft, defeating the very purpose of the combat system.

DOGE vs. Aircraft Carriers

Given Elon Musk’s tech savvy and preference for cheap but sophisticated unmanned systems, it’s likely that he will soon turn his attention to America’s over-budget aircraft carrier force. The money saved by reducing that force could be reinvested in a combination of unmanned systems, submarines, hypersonic missiles to strike China from ever-greater distances, and perhaps even directed energy weapons (DEWs). All of these systems would be a much smarter strategic investment than aging and expensive aircraft carriers.

America is in an era of radical upheaval. Washington has delayed making necessary changes to its force structure for far too long. As a result, the United States has become strategically obsolete while its enemies, including China, have only become stronger. If war breaks out soon, the probability that the United States will lose a major conflict with the current force structure is very high.

DOGE will have to review the structure of the Navy and abandon aircraft carriers.

About the author

Brandon J. Weichert is a national security analyst for the National Interest, a former congressional staffer, and a geopolitical analyst who writes for The Washington Times, Asia Times, and The-Pipeline. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China's Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran's Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, will be published on October 22 by Encounter Books. You can follow Weichert on Twitter: @WeTheBrandon.