And Then There Were 10
It was the retirement of the USS Enterprise in 2012 and the Ford’s expected delivery six months behind schedule in March 2016 that has left the Navy with 10 carriers instead of 11. Congress provided a temporary waiver in the fiscal 2010 defense authorization law to permit the Navy to operate only 10 carriers.
The second Ford-class carrier, the USS John F. Kennedy, also is running $2 billion over budget, while the third of the class appears to be running more than $3 billion over its promised cost.
Ronald O’Rourke, a naval analyst with the Congressional Research Service, wrote in an April report on the program that the Ford-class ships use the basic hull form of the Nimitz-class carriers — about 1,100feet long and about 256 feet wide on the flight deck — but incorporate improvements such as electromagnetic catapults and other equipment that allow about 25percent more aircraft sorties a day, more electrical power and a smaller crew — several hundred fewer sailors than a Nimitz-class carrier. All of that, O’Rourke wrote, “significantly reducing life-cycle operating and support costs.”
But in the short term, the cost overruns in the Ford program are putting significant pressure on the Navy budget at the same time the Defense Department faces spending limits over the next nine years.