Cost to Fix Gears on $13 Billion Aircraft Carrier Has Contractors Dickering
Story by Tony Capaccio • 8h ago
(Bloomberg) -- Five years after the US Navy’s costliest warship was crippled by flawed engine gears, prime contractor HII says it may be close to resolving a claim against subcontractor General Electric Co. over who will pay for fixing the defect.
The propulsion problem that forced the USS Gerald R. Ford to return to port in 2018 was one of many issues of varying severity that the $13 billion aircraft carrier has faced since its May 2017 delivery. The Navy declared the gears fixed in May 2019, and the service advanced funds to HII to fix the issue.
“At some point you’ve got to pay them to get the work done,” Vice Admiral Thomas Moore, head of the Naval Sea Systems Command at the time, said in 2019. But who will ultimately foot the bill remains unresolved. While no current estimates of the cost were available, in 2018 the Navy asked Congress to shift $30 million from other accounts to start repairing the damage.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/cost-to-fix-gears-on-13-billion-aircraft-carrier-has-contractors-dickering/ar-AA19poPI?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=fc3c07aa488c45679f91ce2c38d8ef33&ei=15
