America's costliest warship, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is caught in a strange contradiction. Built at a cost of roughly $13 billion, it is considered the most advanced and most expensive warship in the world. Yet the cutting-edge stealth fighter it was designed around is the one aircraft it still cannot launch from its deck. The Ford has so far been unable to operate the U.S. stealth fighter, the F-35C Lightning II. The most startling part is that flying the jet in the ship's current condition could reportedly punch a hole right through the deck.
Built for the jet, forced to fight without it
The biggest irony is that the Ford was prepared with future combat needs in mind, specifically for this very F-35C. In reality, however, even in war-like conditions the Gerald Ford had to make do with the older F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters. In other words, the capability all that money was spent on simply was not available at the front.
326 days at sea and a string of troubles
The carrier has been in the headlines and mired in controversy in recent times. It was first deployed near Venezuela and then close to Iran. During this stretch there were reports of its toilets failing and, at other times, of fires breaking out on board. Months at sea left the sailors aboard tired and frustrated. After a long deployment of 326 days, the ship has finally returned to the United States. This is being regarded as the longest deployment of any aircraft carrier since the Vietnam War. Despite carrying out several major operations, the carrier never became capable of flying the F-35 fighter. It has now been sent to a shipyard for extensive repairs and upgrades, where it is expected to remain for at least a year.
So where is the problem? The answer is heat
At the root of the whole issue is the searing heat from the engine. The F-35C's engine generates temperatures of around 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, far higher than that of the Super Hornet aircraft currently used on the Ford. The jet blast deflectors mounted on the ship's deck, along with the surrounding surfaces, are not built to withstand that level of heat repeatedly. The U.S. Navy fears that flying the F-35C continuously in the present condition could seriously damage the deck.
Not just the deck, the whole support system is incomplete
The trouble is not limited to the runway or the deck. The F-35C is a stealth aircraft and needs special arrangements for its upkeep. These include a dedicated workshop to repair its stealth coating, secure rooms for its sensitive electronic systems, and a digital diagnostic network called ODIN. Several of these facilities are still not fully in place aboard the Ford, making the jet even harder to support.
The real slip happened 20 years ago
According to TrendKia, the real mistake was one of timing. The Ford's design was locked in around 2005, at a point when the final technical standards for the F-35C had not even been settled. In effect, the ship was drawn up first and the aircraft took shape later. By the time the F-35C's actual requirements became clear, construction of the Ford was already well advanced. The result is that the two platforms never fully aligned with each other, leaving the world's most expensive warship without its most important weapon to this day.
