USS Gerald R. Ford will lack most working elevators when delivered

[rangerrebew]

 
Oct. 9, 2019 / 1:50 PM

USS Gerald R. Ford will lack most working elevators when delivered

When the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford finishes construction, only two of 11 weapons elevators are likely to be working, the shipbuilder said.
By
Ed Adamczyk
 

Oct. 9 (UPI) -- When the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford finishes construction, only two of 11 weapons elevators could be working, the shipbuilder said.

The ship is scheduled to depart Huntington Ingalls Industries' shipyard in Newport News, Va., in late October for Naval Station Norfolk, with deployment anticipated in 2021, but installations of its weapons elevators have been a construction problem.

The ship has 11 electro-magnetic Advanced Weapons Elevators, each capable of moving 24,000 pounds of ordnance at 150 feet per minute. Nine have yet to be certified for use -- two more have reportedly undergone testing and await certification -- and at least seven will not be operational when the Navy receives the vessel.

https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2019/10/09/USS-Gerald-R-Ford-will-lack-most-working-elevators-when-delivered/5141570640938/?sl=4

[rangerrebew]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest the old bucket brigade method of moving missiles and bombs to the flight deck won't be very effective.

[PeteS in CA]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest the old bucket brigade method of moving missiles and bombs to the flight deck won't be very effective.

There are elevators capable of moving aircraft between the hangar and flight deck, slower but with great weight capacity.

[Fishrrman]

Why have we come to the point where we can't even design and build a working elevator (for whatever purpose) on a ship these days....?

[PeteS in CA]

Why have we come to the point where we can't even design and build a working elevator (for whatever purpose) on a ship these days....?

There is no problem with the elevators that lift the Ford's planes from the hangar to the flight deck. The elevators in question are for ordinance and their performance, once working correctly, will be a bit more than ordinary:

... electro-magnetic Advanced Weapons Elevators, each capable of moving 24,000 pounds of ordnance at 150 feet per minute ...

Doing the math, that's moving 12 tons at 2 1/2 feet per second.

[truth_seeker]

How about the top echelons of military-industrial-conressional complex, are increasingly ineffective, corrupt, as in

Afghanistan=18 yrs

Iraq=16 yrs

California high speed train boondoggle

Obama care invented by Romney, enacted by Roberts, saved by McCain,

Border Security, Reagan Amnesty, GW Bush Amnesty

Calif. again, Governor from the Streets of San Feces, can't keep the electricity on.

[sneakypete]

That's ok because it really isn't needed anyhow. It's just the US Navy trying to stay relevant in an age where sea power doesn't mean squat.