The Navy's top civilian official says the aircraft carrier Ford's weapons elevator 'disaster' is back 'on track'

• The US Navy's newest carrier has been in the Atlantic conducting Aircraft Compatibility Testing since January 16.
• At sea, the crew has been getting more practice with some of the carrier's most important equipment: the aircraft launching and landing systems.
• Another major piece of that gear, the carrier's weapons elevators, has been "a disaster up until now," the Navy's acting secretary says, but things are now "on track."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Navy's new, first-in-class aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, went to sea again on January 16 for more testing, including of the carrier's Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Arresting Gear.

EMALS and the AAG, as they're known, have had problems, but the Ford has done more than 70 successful launches and landings with them on this cruise, which follows improvements made during the carrier's protracted post-shakedown availability.

But one of the Ford's most important components, its advanced weapons elevators, still isn't where it needs to be.

Asked about the elevators on Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, DC, Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly said that issue "has obviously received the most attention, because it's been sort of a disaster up until now, to be frank, but we are getting after that problem."

"We're probably going to have seven of these elevators done by the end of this year, out of the 11. They will be certified and operating," Modly said. "They're actually operating now. There's just a certification process that has to go on on those other three."

Once the three remaining elevators are certified, Modly said, "we'll be able to have full range down to the very lowest weapons compartments that we have in the ship. Those are the ones that are fore and aft that go all the way down. So that I think is on track."

A big bet

The Ford got the first of its 11 elevators in December 2018. But by October 2019, only three had been certified and turned over to the Ford's crew. As of January, four elevators have been certified and turned over.

The Navy has said it expects all 11 elevators to be certified and operating by the end of the Ford's 18-month post-delivery test and trials period, which is currently in its third month.

The prolonged delay has strained the Navy's relationship with shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls.

Then-Navy Secretary Richard Spencer - who bet his job on the elevators being ready by summer 2019 - excoriated Huntington Ingalls late last year over what he saw as the company's failures on the Ford. (Spencer stayed in his post until November 2019, when he resigned after President Donald Trump blocked the Navy's efforts to reprimand disgraced SEAL Edward Gallagher.)

The new elevators are part of the first new carrier design in 40 years.

They run on electromagnetic motors rather than the cables used on older carriers. The change is meant to allow them to move faster and carry more - up to 24,000 pounds at 150 feet a minute compared to Nimitz-class carriers' 10,500 pounds at 100 feet a minute.

Seven lower-stage elevators will move ordnance between the lower levels and main deck. Three upper-stage elevators move it between the main deck and the flight deck. A utility elevator can move injured personnel, allowing the others to focus on weapons. The upper-stage and utility elevators are the ones that have been certified and turned over.

James Geurts, the Navy's acquisitions chief, has stressed that the problem is not the technology but the construction.

Mike Butler, Huntington Ingalls' program manager for the next carrier in the class, John F. Kennedy, told Business Insider in November that the new elevators are "a lot more complex than traditional weapons elevators" and have "a lot tighter tolerances because of that."

'The crew wants to be out there'

In his comments Wednesday, Modly highlighted the carrier's overall progress.

"The more important thing is how the ship operating, and they're doing extremely well right now with carrier [qualifications]," Modly said. "A lot of the material conditions stuff that was a concern to me when I went to the ship ... that's really getting exercised extremely well."

"We're hearing feedback from the pilots now that because of this decision to move the island back farther on the ships ... that was done because of the amount of space it opens up in the front of the deck," Modly added. "What they're finding also is that the airflow across the deck is much more stable and smooth, so landing on the carrier now is a completely different experience is what the pilots are telling us."

"For any of you who have been in a ship in a shipyard ... it's not a great time for the crew," Modly said. "The crew wants to be out there operating the ship, and I think they're now starting to get that, so you see a level of enthusiasm coming up, and I think we're definitely on the right path."

Officers on the Ford also touted the work they've been able to do as it operates in the Atlantic this month.

"What we're doing is validating years of test catapult shots that were done at the EMALS test facility ... and years of arrestments on AAG," both at a facility in Lakehurst, New Jersey, said commanding officer Capt. John J. Cummings.

Launching and landing the E-2D Hawkeye, C-2A Greyhound, EA-18G Growler, and T-45 Goshawk, done for the first time this month, were "major milestones" and the "payoff of a ton hard work by the engineering teams and by the test squadrons," said Cmdr. Mehdi Akacem, the Ford's air boss.

The Kennedy, launched in December, benefited from a design and construction team that had learned from building the Ford. Now, Modly said, the Navy is "going to make some decisions about Kennedy and how we might want to bring some crew from the Kennedy over to the Ford to help get her up to speed more quickly."

Calling work on the Ford an "all hands on deck effort," Modly said that "everyone understands how serious this is, and we're getting after it. I think you'll start seeing some good news coming out of what they're actually doing, how they're actually operating, how much better" things are going.