CVN-78 cost jumps 23% and delivery slips 2 months in last 3 months due to hi tech
Back in April 2016, it was said the ship would be ready for delivery by September 2016.
The U.S. Navy did not specify why exactly the ship will be late but just said that Huntington Ingalls, the company in charge of constructing the carrier, was working on first-of-class issues together with the navy.
U.S. Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the entire situation was unacceptable and entirely preventable.
“The Navy’s announcement of another two-month delay in the delivery of CVN-78 further demonstrates that key systems still have not demonstrated expected performance. The advanced arresting gear (AAG) cannot recover airplanes. Advanced weapons elevators cannot lift munitions. The dual-band radar cannot integrate two radar bands,” McCain said.
He added that even if everything went according to plan, the CVN-78 would be delivered with multiple systems unproven.
What caused most problems in the shipbuilding program was the advanced arresting gear system which is, according to McCain $600 million over budget. Ford faced additional delays caused by shock trial tests which could have potentially pushed delivery back by two years.
The ship’s cost also rose by 23 percent to $12.9 billion, as opposed to a $10.5 billion estimate from 2007. This price tag makes the USS Gerald R. Ford and the other two ships in the class the most expensive ships the U.S. Navy has ever built.
The Navy in 2003 established a program to develop a new arresting gear system to safely land airplanes on its next-generation aircraft carriers. Now after years of technological problems, delays and cost overruns, the Navy will decide by December if it should go in a different direction.
A report issued Friday from the Defense Department Inspector General quantifies the extent of the problem in taxpayer dollars. As of October 2015, the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) program had recorded a 332 percent cost increase associated with research, development, test and evaluation.
That represents an overrun of $571.5 million from 2005 baseline numbers, the report says.
Related/Background:
- spendergast: Navy Continues EMALS Testing on Carrier Ford
- spendergast: Latest GAO Report Criticizes Navy Management of CVN-78
- spendergast: Gerald R Ford Stumbles on New Technology Steps
- EMALS/ AAG: Electro-Magnetic Launch & Recovery for Carriers
- NAVSEA: Advanced Arresting Gear Design Flaw Delayed Testing Schedule Two Years, Adds Risk to On Time Ford Carrier Delivery - USNI News
- Aircraft carrier problems need expensive fixes
- Navy studying alternatives to troublesome system on Ford-class carriers - Daily Press
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