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| New Carrier Unlikely to Meet Aircraft Goals |
| 2014-01-22 |
| Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was warned last month that the U.S. Navy’s new aircraft carrier, the most expensive warship ever built, is “unlikely” to meet its goal for handling aircraft. The USS Gerald R. Ford’s “sortie generation” rate -- the ability to launch and recover aircraft -- is based on “unrealistic assumptions,” and key launching systems “are currently suffering from development problems and have poor or unknown reliability,” Pentagon Director of Operational Testing Michael Gilmore told Hagel in a Dec. 9 memo. “I am transmitting this report to you because it deals with a high-visibility program, and it is likely Congress will request copies,” Gilmore wrote. He attached a 30-page report outlining his early “operational assessment” of the CVN-78 program, which calls for spending at least $40 billion to develop and build three carriers. The Navy has said the new carrier promises about a 25 percent increase in sortie generation over the current Nimitz class. The Ford, already the most expensive warship ever built, is projected by the Navy to cost $12.8 billion in current dollars, 22 percent more than estimated five years ago. Adjusted for inflation, the cost is closer to $13.9 billion, said the Congressional Budget Office. “The memo will likely form part of the context for Congress’ consideration of the fiscal funding request for the CVN-78 program,” said Ronald O’Rourke, a naval analyst for the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Navy program documents indicate that the service intends to request about $2.6 billion for the program next year, up about $1 billion from the current year’s request. “The poor reliability” of “critical subsystems” -- such as the new electromagnetic catapult system, advanced arresting gear, dual-band radar and weapons elevators for moving munitions to the flight deck -- “will be the most significant risk” to the carrier’s success in combat testing and deployment, Gilmore said. Both the assessment sent to Hagel and an upcoming annual report on weapons testing “highlight poor or uncertain reliability currently demonstrated by critical new technologies,” Gilmore spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea said in an e-mail statement. A section of Gilmore’s report obtained by Bloomberg News said the Navy to date has “conducted limited reliability testing of these systems.” “If the reliability problems” are not solved and “drive CVN-78’s sortie generation rate well below” that of the current Nimitz class carriers, “the result could be significant to strategic planners” assessing wartime needs, Gilmore wrote. The Navy plans for Ford-class carriers to launch and recover 160 aircraft a day over a sustained period and 270 during a wartime surge; the Nimitz-class requirement is 120 a day and 192 during a surge. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 Hagel's too foggy to draw a distinction between sortie generation and boomer generation. |
| Posted by: KBK 2014-01-22 19:23 |
| #4 already the most expensive warship ever built, is projected by the Navy to cost $12.8 billion in current dollars, 22 percent more than estimated five years ago. Only 22% over? Seems blike Air Force contracts exceed estimates by lots more than that. Get with the program, Navy. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2014-01-22 12:32 |
| #3 Just like in the Carter era: every new piece of equipment developped teething troubles. What a coincidence the same thing happens during Obama's presidency. |
| Posted by: JFM 2014-01-22 06:44 |
| #2 270 during a wartime surge What is that? 3.5 sorties per aircraft? Doesn't seem like a healthy idea at all. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2014-01-22 05:11 |
| #1 Assign all the F-35s to it and you will have a lovely backdrop for photo-ops..... |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2014-01-22 01:12 |