Narrator: These 40,000-pound underwater bombs
are just another test
before the US Navy's largest
and most expensive aircraft carrier
is declared combat-ready.
The USS Gerald R. Ford is the first
in a new class of carriers with more firepower
and a smaller crew.
The previous class began service in 1975.
The Ford was designed to save billions
over a 50-year life span.
Still, the Ford was double the cost
of the last carrier built,
and it's been plagued with unexpected costs and delays.
Just unclogging the toilets can cost $400,000.
We went aboard the USS Ford
to find out why America's most advanced aircraft carrier
still can't be deployed nearly two decades
after plans to build it began.
These sailors are moving ordnance
onto a new kind of weapons elevator
that allows them to do what would be impossible
on any other aircraft carrier.
Paul: We're bypassing the mess-deck area.
We're completely independent.
You would never even see us move an ordnance
throughout the day.
So it's more secure with higher survivability,
and we can store more on board.
Narrator: It's the only way to move munitions
from deep inside the Ford
to rearm planes on its flight deck.
Less advanced carriers move weapons
in a more dangerous way:
through the hangars to the flight deck.
There are 11 elevators on board,
yet only seven are fully functioning.
Until all 11 elevators are complete,
this ship can't be certified for deployment.
The advanced weapons elevators are just one example
of nearly two dozen major new technologies
that make the USS Ford cutting-edge
and one big, floating experiment.
Tal Manvel is a retired Navy captain
who served as the very first project manager
on this new class of aircraft carrier.
Tal: The strip was supposed to start construction in '04.
It got moved '05.
They made an adjustment.
They delayed it a second time.
They delayed it a third time.
Pushing that out, the ship, just by those delays,
went from $6.4 billion
to $10 billion.
Narrator: The Ford is the first of four new carriers
already in different stages of design and build.
The Navy plans to replace
the entire supercarrier fleet with Fords.
US law requires its Navy to operate 11 carriers
at all times.
But with all the delays, the US is down to 10.
The reason we have 11 is driven by the fact
that the US Navy is kind of a two-ocean Navy, if you will.
Narrator: Of the 22 aircraft carriers in the world,
half are American, while China, Italy,
and the UK have just two each.
Tal: This carrier class, if we build 10 or 11 or 12,
could go easily into the 22nd century.
Narrator: More than 5,000 shipbuilders worked
an estimated 49 million hours to build the Ford.
That's seven times the hours logged
building the Empire State Building.
Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations,
said it was a mistake to introduce
more than maybe one or two technologies
on any complex platform at a time.
Tal: Admiral Gilday is right.
What you want to do is only do one or two
new technologies on a new ship.
And here's the reason why.
Ships are the only weapon
that the prototype,
the first of the class, goes to war on.
Narrator: The ship was christened in 2013.
The Navy accepted delivery of the ship in 2017
without everything working
as a way to stay under that year's budget requirements.
Four years later, the carrier systems and technology
are still being tested,
and it won't be ready for deployment until 2022.
So it can go to sea,
pilots can take off and land,
but the problems are still being ironed out
before it's ready to go to war.
Bryan: It's pretty clear that, you know,
putting this many new technologies onto one ship
was a mistake from a
program-management perspective.
Because it did cause the program to be delayed.
Narrator: The delays and tests and fixes are so costly
that every new piece of technology is over budget.
Two of the technologies
that set the Ford apart from every other carrier
are the aircraft takeoff and landing systems.
Some of those are very large, you know,
not incremental changes,
but I would say revolutionary changes
in terms of the electromagnetic aircraft launch system.
Narrator: Other carriers use steam-driven catapults
to propel their jets off the deck.
But the Ford uses electromagnetic
linear induction motors,
similar to a high-speed maglev train or roller coaster.
Just research and design
on the electromagnetic aircraft launch system
cost over $1 billion.
Installing it on the USS Ford
cost more than twice what it was supposed to.
The steam catapult system had thousands of moving parts.
There are less than 100 moving parts
on an electromagnetic catapult.
So that was a big improvement.
Narrator: Fewer moving parts means
fewer sailors to operate and maintain.
The smaller crew and new technologies
were projected to save $4 billion over its 50-year run,
compared to the previous class of aircraft carriers.
The new system causes less stress on the planes
so they last longer.
And more types of aircraft can use it,
including ones that are still being designed.
Landing and takeoff are easier on pilots too,
since a computer does the work.
Bryan: The pilot turns over control to the computer.
It autopilots the airplane down to the carrier deck,
and then when it hits that advanced arresting gear,
it just smoothly brings it to a stop.
So it's a dramatically different
flight experience for the pilot.
It's much safer.
And then it's also going to make the airplane last longer.
Narrator: The Ford's computerized systems
allow both lighter and heavier planes
to take off and land,
something that limited older carriers.
The Ford's combination of new technologies
means that a wider variety of aircraft can land on it.
It's smoother arrestments for aircraft.
That is our goal here on board
for the future of naval aviation,
for flying drones and F-35s.
Narrator: Oddly enough, the new launch system
can't handle the newest fighter plane.
So the Ford will need a retrofit
to handle the F-35 stealth fighter.
The next Ford-class carrier
is under construction
in the shipyard,
but it's already being modified
for the F-35 at an added cost of $315 million.
Many of the Ford's delays can be traced back to politics.
Five American presidents over two decades
weighed in on the planning and building of the Ford.
The Department of Defense
made the aircraft carrier program far more expensive
than it needed to be.
And you can take that to the bank.
Narrator: So far, the true cost of building
this warhorse is $13.3 billion.
A number that's increased
nearly every year
since construction began.
Even the most basic of
onboard functions
can be eye-wateringly expensive.
The fixed requires an acid flush that costs $400,000.
And the Navy has said it doesn't know
how often it will need to be done.
The Navy changed its shipbuilding programs
when the Ford's problems came up.
It began designing and testing
the takeoff systems on land in 2011
while the Ford was under construction.
The advanced-weapons elevators
are also now being tested before installation.
However, that program will only benefit
the next Ford-class carrier.
Built as a deterrent, the true value of the Ford
is likely to be in the wars it helps prevent
rather than those it wages.