Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Says Sailors Aboard First-In-Class Aircraft Carrier USS Gerald R. Ford Have Not But Praise For The Ship

A tugboat directs the Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford as it leaves the pier in Newport News, Virginia, October 25, 2019. US Navy/Mass Comm Specialist Seaman Cory J. Daut

Business Insider: US Navy's top official says its new, first-in-class carrier is improving and sailors don't want to get off

* The new, first-in-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is decked out with new technology, but work on the ship has been waylaid by cost overruns and delays.
* Those issues have been a sore spot between lawmakers, the Navy, and the shipbuilder, but the last six months have seen marked progress, according to the service's top civilian official.

The US Navy's newest carrier, the first-in-class USS Gerald R. Ford, finished 2019 as the subject of a war of words between Congress, the Navy's top civilian official, and the shipbuilder, Huntington Ingalls Industries.

In October, after criticism from lawmakers over the new carrier, then-Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said confidence in the company's senior leadership was "very, very low" and that it had "no idea" what it was doing.

The Ford has a suite of new technology, and its development has been plagued by cost overruns and delays — its delivery to the Navy in May 2017 was two years late — though work on it is progressing.

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