All of Aircraft Carrier Ford's Weapons Elevators Will Be Ready by End of Year Despite Long Delay, N

[rangerrebew]

All of Aircraft Carrier Ford's Weapons Elevators Will Be Ready by End of Year Despite Long Delay, Navy Says
 
10 Aug 2021
Military.com | By Konstantin Toropin

After more than four years of delays, the Navy's newest -- and most expensive -- aircraft carrier finally is set to have all of its weapons elevators working by the end of this year.

The Gerald R. Ford's 11 elevators move missiles and bombs from its weapon magazines up to the flight deck, so that they can be loaded onto aircraft. The lifts must be working before the ship can head out on a deployment scheduled for next year.

The Ford's elevator systems use new technology -- high-powered magnets instead of cables -- to move ordnance. All 11 were supposed to be in working order when the ship was delivered to the Navy in May 2017, but none was operational. Since then, they have been coming slowly online. Last summer, the service said it had six elevators working.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/08/10/all-of-aircraft-carrier-fords-weapons-elevators-will-be-ready-end-of-year-despite-long-delay-navy.html

[rangerrebew]

I hope everyone understands leaving the elevators off was not a gigantic lack of leadership.  It was a clever ploy by the flags to make sure conservative whites couldn't blow the ship up while "leaders"  had a stand down to make nothing would happen while they conducted their witch hunts.

[skeeter]

I suppose these elevators have much higher power requirements. I'm sure they're far more expensive. Are they supposed to be more survivable?

What is the advantage? I'd like to think there is some practical reason, besides being another sop to some defense contractor.