Navy Shelves Review That Might Have Cut Ford Class Production To Build Smaller Carriers
The presumptive new Secretary of the Navy has voiced outright support for the long-troubled Ford class.
By Joseph TrevithickMay 12, 2020
The War Zone
The U.S. Navy has shelved plans to conduct a review of its aircraft carrier fleets, which was set to explore the possibility of cutting the troubled Gerald R. Ford class to just four ships and buying smaller flattops. This comes as Kenneth Braithwaite, the man in line to become the next Secretary of the Navy, has openly endorsed the Ford class and questioned the value of lighter carriers.
USNI News was first to report that Acting Secretary of the Navy James McPherson had decided not to proceed with the carrier study, formally known as Future Carrier 2030, on May 12, 2020. News that the service would be reviewing its carrier force structure had only first emerged in March. McPherson took over as Acting Secretary in April after then-Acting Secretary Thomas Modly resigned in the wake of a scandal surrounding a major outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus onboard the Nimitz class carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and the decision to fire that ship's commanding officer Captain Brett Crozier over a letter warning about the severity of that situation.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/33434/navy-shelves-review-that-might-have-cut-ford-class-of-supercarriers-to-just-four-ships
