USS Gerald R. Ford in the Atlantic Ocean, May 13, 2020. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Angel Thuy Jaskuloski
Washington Times: USS Headache: Navy's newest aircraft carrier stymied by snafus from the start
The USS Gerald R. Ford is a massive, gray-hulled city on the sea. Powered by two nuclear reactors, it is longer than three football fields and displaces 100,000 tons. When the air wing is attached, the Ford provides a base for dozens of jets and helicopters and more than 4,500 sailors.
But it was conceived as far more than just another Navy aircraft carrier, and that’s where the Navy problems start.
The Ford was envisioned as a revolutionary leap forward with technological advancements undreamed of when its Nimitz-class predecessors were launched decades ago.
But the ship, the first in the Ford class of supercarriers, has been plagued with a series of mechanical problems that have pushed its price tag into the stratospheric $13 billion range. The Gerald R. Ford has been in the fleet for almost three years but has yet to deploy on a single mission.
The Ford, the first of three planned supercarriers, incorporates systems such as an advanced arresting gear and the electromagnetic launch system (EMALS), a replacement for the hydraulic catapults that have flung fighter jets off carrier decks for decades.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: This is the third post in the past month that I have put up where details on the problems that the USS Gerald Ford is going through have been covered by the press. Here is an easy prediction. If these problems are not solved in the coming months, expect even more media coverage.
