Why the carrier Ford is delayed again

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/03/26/why-the-carrier-ford-is-delayed-again/

Why the carrier Ford is delayed again

By: Mark D. Faram    12 hours ago


NORFOLK — After a string of successes in the yard, there’s been setback with ongoing efforts to get the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford ready for sea, Navy leaders told lawmakers on Tuesday. The Pentagon has tacked on three months to the Ford’s post-shakedown availability at the Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding complex here and won’t rejoin the fleet until October, at the earliest.
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Geurts disclosed the latest delays during an exchange with Rep. Rob Wittman, a Virginia Republican who said he’d heard concerns voiced by shipyard workers that they wouldn’t have enough time to complete critical work on the warship.
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The Ford’s extended time in the yard marks another delay for the first-of-class carrier. Initially slated for delivery in 2015, it wasn’t turned over to the Navy until mid-2017. The flattop was commissioned on July 22, 2017.

Setbacks with first-of-class warships aren’t unusual but the $13 billion Ford’s have been complicated by its revolutionary technology.
Most of the gremlins initially lodged in the carrier’s Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, or EMALs, and its companion Advanced Arresting Gear. But workers also faced problems with the ship’s 11 Advanced Weapons Elevators.

Those snafus appeared to dissipate when the crew took delivery of the Ford’s second elevator earlier this month, but nine more must be built and certified before the carrier can start using them.
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