National Security & Defense

https://breakingdefense.com/2019/01/navy-inks-huge-ford-carrier-deal-pentagon-flags-problems/

WASHINGTON: The Navy signed a massive, $15.2 billion contract with Huntington Ingalls Industries-Newport News Shipbuilding this evening for two more Ford-class aircraft carriers, hours after a Pentagon report listed a litany of problems with the ambitious program.

The contract pays for completion of in 2028 of the USS Enterprise, which began in 2017. It also pays for the as-yet-to-be-named CVN 81, which will be delivered in 2032.
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The contract was announced the same day the annual Pentagon Operational test and Evaluation report was released. It raised questions about many of the carrier’s systems that critics have long flagged.

“Poor or unknown reliability of systems critical for flight operations including newly designed catapults, arresting gear, weapons elevators, and radar, could affect the ability of CVN 78 to generate sorties,” the report states. “Reliability of these critical subsystems poses the most significant risk to the [program’s] timeline.
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But the whole idea of aircraft carriers steaming into battle in the coming years is being called into question. Earlier in the day, Todd Harrison from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, speaking on a defense budget panel, said that even with what is expected to be a $750 billion defense budget in 2020, the idea of the Navy reaching its 355-ship goal in the coming decades is “out the window” without an even larger budget. He questioned the Navy’s plans to keep 12 carriers in the fleet while buying more Ford-class flattops as an example of old-school thinking to meet new pacing threats from China and Russia.

“You’re not going up against China or Russia with carriers,” he said, which are building up their ship-killer missile capability and have focused intently on developing technologies and strategies for keeping US ships away from their waters.
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