Gerald R. Ford Class CVN

sparky42 said:
Surprised that the USN doesn't have enough stores that they have to nick mattresses from the JFK to replace the Ford's ones?
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My guess is that it was just quicker to grab them from JFK and send them to Greece than it was to order replacements from the depot.
 

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Sferrin said:
Will be epic when Enterprise enters service. (Despite what Hollywood has done to the name.)
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Hopefully, my Wife and will be able to attend the CVN-80 commissioning ceremony, we attended the inactivation ceremony in 2012. Hopefully, it will be with my Navy buddy's again, we have been keeping in touch since the 1980's.
 
Just so you know, POTUS 47 brought up his famous 'steam catapult vs EMALS' thing at a conference again today. :rolleyes:

As @Sferrin mentioned in post #92 in 2017 before, let POTUS 47 just be himself. The four Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers, CVN-78 to CVN-81, will keep the EMALS and the ordnance elevators. If the current US administration cancels or postpones to order CVN-82 Clinton and CVN-83 Bush 2.0, is a different story. ;)
 
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fightingirish said:
Just so you know, POTUS 47 brought up his famous 'steam catapult vs EMALS' thing at a conference again today. :rolleyes:

As @Sferrin mentioned in post #92 in 2017 before, let POTUS 47 just be himself. The four Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers, CVN-78 to CVN-81, will keep the EMALS and the ordnance elevators. If the current US administration cancels or postpones to order CVN-82 Clinton and CVN-83 Bush 2.0, is a different story. ;)
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EM cats aren't going anywhere.
 
Are they building new, or modifying an existing drydock in Bremerton?

I strongly suspect modifying an existing drydock because there's very little space to build a new one. Especially a new carrier-sized drydock.
 
Scott Kenny said:
I strongly suspect modifying an existing drydock because there's very little space to build a new one. Especially a new carrier-sized drydock.
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If that is the case what about the USN buying additional adjacent land to enable the construction of new carrier-sized dry-docks?
 
NMaude said:
If that is the case what about the USN buying additional adjacent land to enable the construction of new carrier-sized dry-docks?
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There's not really any space in Bremerton for the USN to expand. The town is right up on the edge of the fence, and everything on the water has docks on it.

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The dark gray area is the shipyard. There's not really any place to expand. Best bet would be to rework one of the 5 drydocks in land. Else someone is going to have to do a lot of work to make a second drydock going into the inlet.
 
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-she...vy-and-americas-shipbuilding-industrial-base/
  • The Memorandum directs the Secretary of War to replace the Advanced Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch Systems and the Advanced Weapons Elevators with traditional steam and hydraulic systems during the construction of CVN-81.
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Memorandum:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presiden...vy-and-americas-shipbuilding-industrial-base/

President Trump has directed the Navy to tear out a complex system for launching jet fighters from its aircraft carriers and instead go back to using steam catapults, a move Navy officials have fought for years and will likely cost billions of dollars.

U.S. officials say Trump signed a national security memorandum Thursday directing the change, which would involve removing the electromagnetic catapult system used by the ships in the Gerald R. Ford class of carriers.

By doing so, Trump is making good on a promise he made almost 10 years ago to go back to the steam system after hearing a sailor praise it while visiting a ship during his first term.
But since Trump said in an interview with Time in 2017 that he told the Navy to go back to “goddamn steam,” top Navy and industry leaders have resisted the move because of the enormous expense to tear out such a complex system that was integral to the design of the Ford class.
The move directs the Navy to redesign the fourth ship in the class—to be named the Doris Miller—and all remaining ships. The first three ships—the Ford, John F. Kennedy and Enterprise—will retain the electromagnetic system.
“They’re not nearly as good, too complex,” Trump said last month at a conference in Pennsylvania, referring to the electromagnetic system.
The memo includes several other directives aimed at improving submarine maintenance and repair and driving foreign investment into the U.S. shipbuilding sector as the Navy tries to increase the size of its fleet.
The order marks Trump’s latest foray into the design and development of major military programs. He inserted himself into negotiations for the Air Force One and the F-35 jet fighter programs, directed design changes to the Constellation-class frigate and championed the creation of Trump-class battleships.
“This decision will result in carriers that are enabled by battle-tested steam and hydraulic systems that are more resilient and robust than the present, more exquisite, follow-on systems,” the White House said in a statement. “It will also reactivate portions of the maritime industrial base that are easier to scale.”
The nuclear-powered USS Gerald R. Ford, the first ship in the class that cost more than $13 billion, experienced numerous issues during its development and construction, most notably with the catapults, arresting gear and elevators inside the ship that carry munitions to the flight deck.

In February, the Navy touted the success of the Ford’s new electromagnetic catapults and advanced arresting gear, saying they allowed the carrier to launch and recover aircraft at a higher rate than its predecessor Nimitz-class ships. Earlier this year it completed a historic 11-month deployment that included operations against Venezuela and supporting the war in Iran.
The USS George H.W. Bush, which entered the Navy’s fleet in 2009, was the last aircraft carrier built with steam catapults. Replacing the electromagnetic catapults with steam will be a complex endeavor that will likely cost billions of dollars, according to Bryan Clark, a naval expert with the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank.
Internally, the Ford class is much different from the Nimitz. Sections that housed the infrastructure for steam have been reworked or simply don’t exist. Steam on the older Nimitz ships powers not only the aircraft catapults, but also heating and evaporators that produce freshwater and galley equipment, such as kettles. Piping runs throughout the ship, which creates numerous points of failure.
“Electric is more reliable,” Clark said. “If I can turn these components to be electric instead of steam, it eliminates all the steam related mechanical parts.”
The maintenance on the electrical systems is cheaper, he added. There are 500 fewer sailors on the Ford, in part because fewer technicians are needed to work on the ship’s existing steam equipment.
Clark said early data from the Navy shows that the Ford costs about $100 million less a year to operate compared with a Nimitz-class ship.
As of March, nearly 37,000 aircraft had been launched by Ford’s four electromagnetic catapults, according to Navy data.
General Atomics, the company that builds the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Arresting Gear for the Ford class, said the decision to revert to steam “warrants careful reconsideration.” The company was awarded a contract to build the catapults and arresting gear for the Doris Miller in 2023. Its work is nearly 50% complete and “changing course now would introduce significant cost, schedule, and integration risks,” the company said in a statement.
“The decision will have broader implications for carrier readiness, national security, and U.S. technological superiority, potentially creating opportunities for adversaries to close the capability gap,” the company said. “It also comes at a time when strengthening the U.S. supplier industrial base is a national priority, making workforce stability, production capacity, and the ability to sustain critical technologies more important than ever.”
HII, which makes the Ford-class, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Doris Miller isn’t expected to enter the fleet until 2034, but the Navy plans to lay its keel this year, according to a Navy document.
China is using electromagnetic catapults in its newest aircraft carriers and France plans to use the system on the Ford in its new carrier.
The memo directs the Pentagon to pursue more direct investments in U.S. shipbuilding. Under the guidelines, a foreign shipbuilder could build up to two ships overseas while at the same time training American workers and investing in U.S. shipyards.
A similar model has been used by the U.S. Coast Guard to build new icebreakers at Finland’s Rauma Marine Constructions. Additional ships will be built in Louisiana by Bollinger Shipyards. Three ships are already under construction and more than $1 billion has been invested in American shipyards.
The memorandum also calls for a new public shipyard “to supercharge submarine repair and restore the American industrial base.” It would be the first new Navy shipyard opened in 83 years, the White House said. It also called for creating a “Component Repair Center,” essentially a submarine spare parts warehouse, that could quickly ship replacements to subs and repair broken parts.
The Navy has been trying to boost submarine production for years with the goal of building two Virginia-class and one Columbia-class sub each year. It recently awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII Newport News Shipbuilding a $76.6 billion deal for nine Virginia-class and five Columbia-class submarines that will be delivered by 2038.
Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8


Appeared in the August 14, 2026, print edition as 'Navy Is Ordered to Restore Carriers’ Old Technology'.
 
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donnage99 said:
Huh? Did Congress order to go back to steam or trump?
And yes EMALS isn’t goin anywhere. It just cost extra billions of dollars to go back to steam and some more extra to go back to EMALS when he’s out of office

The point is money wasted and time delay for absolutely infantile reason when we in a middle of another Cold War.

And please don’t make this into political left vs right. It’s such a weird pivot. If your immediate reaction is to pivot to “Democrats suck” when we’re talking specifically about Trump ordering Navy to abandon EMALS then it’s time to reevaluate maybe you’ve been victim of internet algorithm of feedin you a set of narratives that over period of time, results in certain mental reaction mechanisms such as what you just gone through between reading the report and responding to me.
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Like with any new tech got to work the bugs out. Now there could be new tech for say a next-gen steam catapult but you still need to use fresh water, no sea water. Had a buddy when I was on CVN-65 and he was an ABH working the cats, constant maintenance, complicated and you needed an AOG team in case one breaks down. Not to say EMALS is complicated but in a different way but the only water to deal with is for cooling. I think EMALS will stay, just have to improve and evolve the design.
 
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/13/trump-aircraft-carriers-steam-catapults

“You know the catapult is quite important,” Trump told Time magazine in 2017 before recounting a conversation he said he had with an unnamed navy officer.

“So I said, ‘What is this?’ ‘Sir, this is our digital catapult system’”, Trump went on. “It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out.
And I said–and now they want to buy more aircraft carriers – I said, ‘What system are you going to be’– ‘Sir, we’re staying with digital.’ I said, ‘No you’re not. You[’re] going to goddamned steam, the digital costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good’”.

A Guardian review of Trump’s public remarks shows that he has retold that story, with variations, every year since 2017."
 
By the actual wording of the letter?

For Doris Millier, the Next lay down ship, which is what the Letter Describes to pull the EM stuff not Enterprise, Ford or JFK, Miller.

Have yer had her Keel layed, should to be in the 4 months but that been delay since MAY due to lack of bodies.

Even assuming best willful practice on the yard to get this done.

Doris with be at best a quarter done by the time Trump out. Likely more around a tenth due to redesign issues.

Meaning that this letter is not happening at all.
 
I can see this idea getting dropped really fast when people start looking at how hard it will be and how much it will cost. It'll probably end up costing the price of several extra carriers.

What is the real reason behind this anyway, because Trump's ramblings make littleno sense?
 
Forest Green said:
I can see this idea getting dropped really fast when people start looking at how hard it will be and how much it will cost. It'll probably end up costing the price of several extra carriers.

What is the real reason behind this anyway, because Trump's ramblings make littleno sense?
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The real reason is that back in his first term, someone told him that EMALS sucked (TBF, it was going through some issues at the time). And now his brain keeps circling back to old grievances, so this popped into his head again when the news started talking about the issues on Lincoln.

Same reason he talked about wanting the island back in the middle.
 
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https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/14/trump-navy-lincoln-concerns-01038360
General Atomics, the company that makes electronic catapults, said in a statement that work on the catapults was halfway complete and that changing course now “would introduce significant cost, schedule, and integration risks.”

The company was awarded nearly $1.2 billion in 2023 for work on the launch system and other technology with the USS Doris Miller aircraft carrier. That warship is supposed to be complete by 2034, although it’s not clear how the order will affect the timeline.
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I think the next US administration will order USS Doris Miller to be delivered with EMALS. Somewhat later than 2034, because of changes-induced delays.
 
https://wapo.st/4wqjGiV

The U.S. Navy is considering a major redesign of its new aircraft carriers to better match President Donald Trump’s preferred aesthetic for the warships, according to seven current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The service is evaluating the feasibility of moving the multistory tower that acts as the carrier’s command center farther forward, toward the middle of the ship, to resemble older vessels, the officials said. The review, which has not been previously reported, is in response to Trump’s concerns about the “look” of the new Ford-class ships, where the tower is near the rear, these people said.

...

Moving that command center, known as the “island,” would be the second major design change prompted by the president, who on Thursday issued a national security memorandum directing the Navy to develop a plan to revert to older steam-powered catapults on future carriers. The systems help launch jets off the ships’ flight decks.

Trump’s preference, current and former officials said, is for the new aircraft carriers to look more like those that were in service during World War II.
The Navy also examined the issue during his first term as president, said a former senior U.S. official. A study found that moving the island could cost billions of dollars in redesign costs and significantly delay the program, this person said.
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Nothing is going to happen but, aside from lighting them up about the EM cats (so they felt the pressure to get them figured out), I wish he'd STFU about it. Moving the island? I can think of fifty other things I'd rather he concerned himself with.
 
This picture really illustrates the key problem with pushing the island forward. The only place you can put it without having to relocate the aircraft elevators is between the two starboard elevators, which forces you to move the two aft weapon elevators. Which in turn means you need to move the magazines, or plan to shuttle weapons fore and aft between the deep magazine and the upper elevators. It also kills the two-deep deck park amidships, which is where the arming and refuelling "pit stop" arrangement is, which means the time required to turn around aircraft between strikes is much longer. It's a redesign from the keel up and makes the ships significantly worse in the process.
 

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