re: #83 Belafon

Did we retire our other 10 carriers?

We’ve still got 10 carriers. The Ford is the lead of the new design, and it’s got a bunch of new tech involved, centered around aircraft launch and recovery. EMAL system is supposed to make it safer to launch a wider range of aircraft more smoothly so that airframes are not shocked as much as they are under current steam system.

Landing system would have a similar system to improve safety and reduce stress on airframes and deck systems.

Some of this is teething problems. Some of this is that we’re talking about the crown jewel of the US Navy and there are significant problems.

That’s on top of the problems the Navy had with the Zumwalt class, the Virginia class subs, and the F-35 carrier and VSTOL versions.

All their new acquisitions programs have been severely over budget and underwhelming in performance as compared to spec.

Put simply, the acquisition process for the military sucks. Now it just costs more than ever and there are fewer companies who can do the work.