Navy's Priciest Carrier Ever Struggles to Get Jets On, Off Deck

[Zorro]

Aircraft takeoff and landing systems on the USS Gerald R. Ford remain unreliable and break down too often more than three years after the $13.2 billion carrier was delivered, according to the Pentagon’s top tester.

The latest assessment of the costliest warship ever built “remains consistent” with previous years, director of testing Robert Behler said in his new summary of the program obtained by Bloomberg News before its release in an annual report.

“Poor or unknown reliability of new technology systems critical for flight operations,” including its $3.5 billion electromagnetic launch system and advanced arresting gear, could “adversely affect” the carrier’s ability to generate sorties, he said.

The Ford’s new systems -- which propel planes off the deck and into the sky and then snag them on landing -- are crucial to justifying the expense of what’s now a four-vessel, $57 billion program intended to replace the current Nimitz class of aircraft carriers.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-09/navy-s-priciest-carrier-ever-struggles-to-get-jets-on-off-deck

[KayF]

1. you had two jobs n/t

[MyNameGoesHere]

2. Come on, it's named after a bumbling

Falling down idiot, what did you expect.

[underpants]

3. Yeah BUT 6 of the 11 elevators are working now

So we can get the boom boom moving we just need the vroom vroom to work.

[Delarage]

4. Isn't this what prompted Trump

To say we needed to go back to steam or something? We should get Elon Musk to help with this.

[Turbineguy]

5. If McDonalds customers had to spend time at the Pentagon.

"11,500 Dollars for a Big Mac? What a bargain!"

[pecosbob]

6. I served aboard Nimitz. The catapults and arrestors worked fine.

I recall when they upgraded the blast deflectors on the flight deck to accommodate the new F-14s shortly after I reported aboard. Perhaps there were reasons to change that system, I don't know. I suspect defense contractors reinventing the wheel.