July 11, 2019
Yikes: America's Ford Class Aircraft Carrier Has Engine Problems
Oh noes.
by Task and Purpose
NAVSEA told Bloomberg that shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls identified the issue as a “manufacturing defect†rather than an overall design flaw.
Brand-new Navy aircraft carrier and floating catastrophe USS Gerald R. Ford was forced to return to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia after encountering issues with its propulsion train, Navy Times reports — the second critical failure in the propulsion system to roil the next-generation supercarrier, after a previously undisclosed failure was initially discovered months ago.
-The engines don’t work. Well, sort of: According to Navy Times, problems “reside in the mechanical components associated in turning steam created by the nuclear plant into spinning screws that power the ship through the water,†although Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman Bill Couch asserted that the new problem was different from an earlier problem identified by the crew in January and publicly disclosed this month. NAVSEA told Bloomberg that shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls identified the issue as a “manufacturing defect†rather than an overall design flaw.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/yikes-americas-ford-class-aircraft-carrier-has-engine-problems-66366
