U.S. Navy Is Asking For Outside Help To Fix Its $13 Billion Aircraft Carriers

The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ridge Leoni

Business Insider: The US Navy is asking for outside help because it still hasn't figured out how to fix its $13 billion supercarriers

* The US Navy is struggling to get the advanced weapons elevators on its new Ford-class aircraft carriers to work, so it is calling in outside experts to help amid delivery delays and rising costs, Breaking Defense reported on Monday.
* The electromagnetic weapons elevators on the Ford-class carriers, which can move twice as many munitions as the elevators on the Nimitz-class carriers at a faster rate, are essential to boosting the aircraft sortie rate to increase the overall lethality of the new flattops.
* The secretary of the Navy bet his job on the elevators being ready to go by the end of a maintenance period that was expected to end in July but has since been delayed to October. Even then, the Navy has doubts about its ability to get the elevators operational on time.

The Navy is struggling to fix its new Ford-class supercarriers, so the service has called in outside experts to help find a solution amid delivery delays and rising costs.

The advanced weapons elevators, critical systems that the secretary of the Navy bet his job on, are one of the biggest problems. Only two of the 11 electromagnetic lifts on the USS Gerald R. Ford are operational.

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Update: Navy Calls In Outsiders To Fix Troubled Ford Carrier (Breaking Defense)

WNU Editor: I have this sinking feeling that the fixes are going to dramatically increase the price for these new Ford-class super carriers.