Trump battleship will be nuclear-powered like Ford aircraft carrier

What they're saying: "I'm thrilled we finally landed on the fact that it's going to be nuclear," Caudle said during testimony on the Hill.

• "We batted it around — to deliver it sooner, to make it conventional — and we came back around full circle to make it nuclear. That's the exact right answer."

Zoom in: The battleship will be equipped with the same power plant, the A1B, seen aboard the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the world's largest warship.

• "All of that technology that's going into the design of the nuclear battleship, from the reactor plant perspective, is all pull-through technology from the Ford class, as are most of the combat systems, radar systems, missile systems," Caudle said.
• "What's new is the hull form."

The intrigue: Aircraft carriers are, for now, the only nuclear-powered surface ships in the Navy's inventory.

What's next: The service wants 15 battleships by 2056, Breaking Defense reported. Three will cost more than $43 billion.

Go deeper: Introducing Trump's puzzling nuclear-armed battleship