The Ford-Class Aircraft Carrier Gamble Is Finally Paying Off: EMALS, A1B Reactors, And Why The Growing Pains Were Worth It

The Ford-Class Aircraft Carrier Gamble Is Finally Paying Off: EMALS, A1B Reactors, And Why The Growing Pains Were Worth It

The USS Gerald R. Ford spent a decade as Washington’s favorite procurement punching bag, and most of the punches landed fairly: years late, billions over, catapults that broke, elevators that did not work, a parade of GAO reports cataloging the damage. The criticism told the truth and missed the point. The Navy did not botch a routine aircraft carrier; it deliberately packed a generation of first-of-kind technologies into a single 100,000-ton hu…