Innovations for the Ford class include an enhanced flight deck with increased sortie rates, improved weapons movement, a redesigned island, a new nuclear power plant, allowance for future technologies and reduced manning.

Ford shares a modified Nimitz-class hull form with a completely reconfigured internal space arrangement and flight deck layout. Ford brings many noticeable upgrades compared to the Nimitz class, especially the higher quality living environment for sailors with quieter sleeping compartments, many entertainment and fitness areas, and better air conditioning system. The ship is named after the 38th President of the United States, Gerald Ford, whose World War II naval service included combat duty aboard the light aircraft carrier Monterey in the Pacific Theater. Many of these issues have since been resolved, the Navy says, but with the extended timeline for repairs and testing, the Navy expects that USS Ford will not enter service until 2024 – six years behind schedule and almost two decades after the first construction began. Multiple additional issues with propulsion were discovered in sea trials, necessitating long post-shakedown repairs. However, the delivery schedule gradually slipped to 2017, and costs ballooned 20 percent to $12.9 billion – more than any nation has ever paid for a warship.ĭespite the cost, the Navy accepted her in an incomplete state and with known deficiencies, including problems with her catapult, arresting gear and elevators. The US Navy began design work on the Ford in the early 2000s, the era of then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s “revolution in military affairs.” Construction work began on USS Ford in 2005 for a planned 2015 delivery.

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