US Navy Ford Class nuclear carriers

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Trump to Visit New Carrier at Newport News

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2017-02-28 16:58:16

The White House has announced that President Donald Trump is scheduled to make a speech on Thursday aboard the newly built aircraft carrier

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, which is nearing the completion of systems testing at Newport News.

The announcement of the scheduled stop coincides with news of the president's plan to raise defense spending by $54 billion while cutting other government programs. Trump has previously spoken in favor of a 350-ship Navy, a number that corresponds with the service's latest request for a 355-ship fleet, and Trump said in October that “Norfolk Naval Shipyard is [going to get busier] . . . you’re going to be right at the center of the action with the building of new ships.”

The $13 billion Gerald R. Ford is the most expensive ship ever built, and she may rival Shell's Prelude FLNG for the title of most expensive floating structure. Her commissioning is several years behind schedule and $2.4 billion over budget due to problems with her new Dual Band Radar, generators, electromagnetic aircraft launch system and advanced arresting gear. Navy officials said that she would be ready in September 2016, but testing delays pushed back the date into 2017. The Navy reported in January that the vessel was 99 percent complete, and her delivery is now expected at some point in April. If sea trials and operational testing go well, her first deployment will take place in 2021.

Senator John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has criticized the procurement process for the Ford class, which was designed and ordered during then-secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld's Rumsfeld's Defense Department prioritized rapid technological advancement, and critics contend that this strategy pushed immature systems into production before they had been fully tested.

"The Ford-class program is a case study in why our acquisition system must be reformed – unrealistic business cases, poor cost estimates, new systems rushed to production, concurrent design and construction, and problems testing systems to demonstrate promised capability," McCain said in a statement last July. The following month, the Pentagon ordered an into the procurement process for the Ford class.

damitch300 said:

Can anyone explain why theu never prime all the metal sheets and units before adding to the ship?
It is so rusty when building and also in parts where people will never go again...

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That's easy. So the ship won't require sandbalsting, primer and painting twice. because if the ship is painted when assembled it will start to get that surface rust before it is finished and will have to be treated again and again. the rust you see when the ship is being built is just surface corrosion and is easily treatable..although very disconcerting.

Jeff Head said:

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I am really looking forward to seeing this carrier go out to sea!

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I too am looking forward to ship going to sea...but it ain't happening this month. Only 2 1/2 days left.

I check the Hampton Roads news sources as well as Huntington Ingalls news and NOTHING new about the GRF..CVN-78. ..nuttin!

test bd said:

I too am looking forward to ship going to sea...but it ain't happening this month. Only 2 1/2 days left.

I check the Hampton Roads news sources as well as Huntington Ingalls news and NOTHING new about the GRF..CVN-78.

..nuttin!

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Word! she was suppose to go out last week for her sea trials but as usual delays and more delays. They say she will be commission this year but I will not hold my breath! especially if she doesn't go out for builders in April!

kwaigonegin said:

Word! she was suppose to go out last week for her sea trials but as usual delays and more delays. They say she will be commission this year but I will not hold my breath! especially if she doesn't go out for builders in April!

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Ha.. I don't believe it. This whole situation is making me lose confidence in the ablity of Hunington Ingalls to deliver a NEW product on time and within the budget. Hopefully by the time JFK and Enterprise are rolled out the kinks will be solved.

kwaigonegin, did you know there are shipmates aboard that ship that have been aboard for four years that will NEVER go to see or NEVER be a plankowner aboard GRF? Hopefully they will get credit for their sea duty. The first crew members arrived in 2013. and the ship is two years behind schedule
..now that is pitiful..

I agree...it is a shame that she is so late.

at the same time, I know womsehting of the new technologies they are rolling into this ship.

Like with the Zumwalt, if it takes a little lnger for the US Navy to field the types of break through and league leading technologies she will ultimately make profcient, I am okay with her beiong late. It's not like any iof the Nimitz class are about to break down within a couple of years.

I expect it is going to take the GRF longer to commission and longer to reach IOC and FOC too...becuase they have to lern to apply and use all of this new stuff...and that is fine too.

It means that the JFK and Enterprise and the other follow ons will be that much more proficient at the game changing things she brings.

Still...sad to see it take so long because I am excited about seeing her go to sea, aboyt being commissioned, and about reaching operational capability.

But...as I say, when you are changing the rules and the technologies, its is hard to predict how long it takes, and new tech like this costs more and brings difficulties they have never dealt with before.

Once they get it down, Ingals will chrun them out just ike she did the Nmitz class

@test bd @kwaigonegin @bd popeye popeye @Obi Wan Russell @Air Force Brat

test bd said:

Ha.. I don't believe it. This whole situation is making me lose confidence in the ablity of Hunington Ingalls to deliver a NEW product on time and within the budget. Hopefully by the time JFK and Enterprise are rolled out the kinks will be solved.

kwaigonegin, did you know there are shipmates aboard that ship that have been aboard for four years that will NEVER go to see or NEVER be a plankowner aboard GRF?

Hopefully they will get credit for their sea duty. The first crew members arrived in 2013. and the ship is two years behind schedule

..now that is pitiful..

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Yessir!.. A few hundred actually who first stepped on board in 2013 like you said. Many of them no doubt will never get to go out on her maiden voyage with the fleet. Some may have retired, or rotated out. I hope at some point in the future they get invited back to go on board but I seriously doubt it once she goes on active duty with new crew.
Those who are young enough and live long enough may get invited when she decomms but that's 50 yrs from now.

CVN-78 reminds me of this..


...at least Excelsior got underway. What the hey. MAYBE CVN-78 will get underway today!

Well the USS Ford is a new type of carrier as well as her size with many types of technology added on, so of course it will be a little delay for the 1st one. The next one should be smoother after all the major kinks are worked out.

Equation said:

Well the USS Ford is a new type of carrier as well as her size with many types of technology added on, so of course it will be a little delay for the 1st one. The next one should be smoother after all the major kinks are worked out.

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People keep saying that however I respectfully disagree due to the fact that the delays are not 'little' and this isn't the first time or ever the 10th time.. This is like the umpteenth time she has been delayed on her major milestones over the course of her construction.

I totally understand she is the first of class and as such delays are inevitable especially for something as big and as complex as she is however this has gone waaaay past that but even then there is not that much of an excuse because program managers usually DO include delays and pad extra time in the proposed timeline due to first in class problems.

She was supposed to be delivered this time LAST year. As it appears now WHEN she is delivered her AAG will not even be fully operational and they will perform concurrent testing.

Her delay and the delays on maintenance on couple of other carriers had actual national security implications. For a brief moment in time very recently the USN had ZERO I mean ZERO carriers deployed at sea anywhere in the world!!

there is also the cost aspect. Her delays has cost the American taxpayer so much $$ the Navy could easily have bought a couple more Burke Fly IIIs or even another Zumwalt!