President Donald Trump criticized the technologies aboard the new US Navy supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford on Wednesday in a discussion of waste, reviving complaints about the aircraft carrier’s engineering.
In remarks following the swearing-in of the new Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Trump deviated unexpectedly into carrier catapults and elevators, among other topics.
“Look at the Gerald Ford, the aircraft carrier,” Trump said. “It was supposed to cost 3 billion. It ends up costing like 18 billion.’
The USS Gerald Ford is the world’s largest aircraft carrier and the first ship of the new Ford-class carriers.
The $13 billion vessel set sail on its first deployment in 2022 after years of delays and soaring costs, which stemmed from technological integration challenges.
“We had 23 new technologies on that ship, which quite frankly increased the risk … of delivery on time and cost right from the get-go,” former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday said in 2022, acknowledging the tech troubles.
Issues included the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) and the advanced weapons elevators.
These systems now appear to work sufficiently. The carrier was able to complete a successful extended deployment in early 2024 that took it to the Eastern Mediterranean in the fall of 2023, just after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
But the president still has concerns about the technology.
Trump knocked the ship’s “electric catapults” as faulty on Thursday, telling listeners that they “don’t work.” He has previously said the EMALS is too complicated and that sailors have to be Albert Einstein to work the system. He has pushed for steam catapults, which is what the Nimitz-class carriers use.
The new EMALS technology hasn’t been without problems. In 2020, the catapults failed inexplicably, hamstringing flight operations for the better part of a week.
Naval Air Systems announced in the summer of 2022 that the EMALS and advanced arresting gear on the Ford had facilitated 10,000 aircraft launches and recoveries, indicating a shift away from earlier tech woes.
Trump’s concerns extend beyond the EMALS though.
“And they have all magnetic elevators,” Trump continued in his remarks Thursday on the Ford’s technology. “They lift up 25 planes at a time, 20 planes at a time,” he said, seemingly referring to the massive elevators designed to move military aircraft. The Ford has three aircraft elevators and 11 advanced weapons elevators, dedicated to moving heavy ordnance like bombs and missiles.
The weapons elevators, which rely on electromagnetic motors instead of cables and pulleys, were a problem during his first term in office. The shipbuilder resolved the issues prior to delivering the carrier to the Navy.
Trump has had a lot to say about the Ford over the years. Privately, he’s also expressed concerns about the way it looks.
The Navy has one Ford-class carrier in service, one being readied for later delivery, two under construction, and two in planning. It’s unclear if the White House intends to make changes to naval engineering and construction efforts.
The Navy did not provide comment on the president’s remarks, and there was no immediate response from the White House.
Trump has previously signaled his intent to have the new Department of Government Efficiency look into the military, adding Wednesday that when “you look at the kind of waste, fraud, and abuse that this country is going through … we have to straighten it out.” His National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, criticized US shipbuilding over the weekend as an “absolute mess.”
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