WASHINGTON -- The Navy's newest aircraft carrier isn't ready for warfare.
The $12.9 billion USS Gerald R. Ford -- the most expensive warship ever built -- may struggle to launch and recover aircraft, mount a defense and move munitions, according to the Pentagon's top weapons tester. Onboard systems for those tasks have reliability issues, according to a June 28 memo obtained by Bloomberg News.
"These four systems affect major areas of flight operations," Michael Gilmore, the Defense Department's director of operational test and evaluation, wrote Pentagon and Navy weapons buyers Frank Kendall and Sean Stackley. "Unless these issues are resolved, which would likely require redesigning" of the aircraft launch and recovery systems, "they will significantly limit the CVN-78's ability to conduct combat operations," Gilmore wrote, using a technical name for the carrier.
The reliability problems mean that delivery of the Ford -- the first of three carriers ordered in a $42 billion program -- will probably slip further behind schedule. The Navy announced last week that the ship, originally due by September 2014, wouldn't be delivered before November this year because of continuing unspecified testing problems.
The service has operated 10 carriers since the retirement of the USS Enterprise in 2012. Extended deployments of the remaining ships have placed stress on crews and meant added strain meeting global commitments from the battle against the Islamic State extremist group to ensuring freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, home to $5 trillion in annual trade.
A prolonged delay also could hamper the military if a new conflict arises.
"Based on current reliability estimates, the CVN-78 is unlikely to conduct high-intensity flight operations" such as a requirement for four days of 24-hour surge operations "at the outset of a war," Gilmore wrote.
As delivery of the Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. vessel approaches, "my concerns about the reliability of these systems remain and the risk to the ship's ability to succeed in combat grows as these reliability issues remain unresolved," Gilmore said.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the Navy's announcement of additional delays last week "unacceptable," adding that it was a "case study in why our acquisition system must be reformed."
A Navy spokesman, Lt. Kara Yingling, said the Navy was aware of the report but referred additional comment to Kendall's office. Kendall spokesman Mark Wright said in an email that "we don't feel it is appropriate to release our response to this internal memo."
The Navy has said that Huntington Ingalls of Newport News, Va., is performing well as the shipbuilder. Many of the technologies installed on the first-of-class carrier are produced by other companies. As of last month, the ship's construction was 98 percent complete, the Navy said. Huntington Ingalls has turned over 97 percent of the carrier's compartments and 89 percent of shipboard testing is completed, the Navy said.
The Navy plans to deploy the Ford by 2021 for worldwide operations after a series of maintenance and training exercises and completion of full ship-shock trials by fiscal 2018, so there is time to correct deficiencies before potential combat operations. Yet the problems cited so far are critical for the vessel's success.
Gilmore said the carrier's advanced arresting gear for snagging landing aircraft and the launch system, both made by General Atomics of San Diego, are experiencing different but still inadequate levels of reliability. Meghan Ehlke, a General Atomics spokesman, didn't respond to an email seeking comment.
A Section on 07/21/2016