{"id":177623,"date":"2019-07-31T18:59:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/07\/31\/everyone-at-the-pentagon-needs-to-read-superiority-by-arthur-c-clark\/"},"modified":"2019-07-31T18:59:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T23:59:00","slug":"everyone-at-the-pentagon-needs-to-read-superiority-by-arthur-c-clark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/07\/31\/everyone-at-the-pentagon-needs-to-read-superiority-by-arthur-c-clark\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyone at the Pentagon Needs to Read Superiority, by Arthur C. Clark"},"content":{"rendered":"
The newest carrier in the US Navy, and the lead ship in the class, the USS Gerald Ford, has experiences many problems related to new technologies implemented on the ship.<\/div>\n

First, it was the electromagnetic catapults, which are still missing performance and reliability goals, then it was the advanced arrester gear, and now it appears that the munitions elevators cannot deliver ordinance to the flight deck<\/a>, meaning that the Ford is not even close to combat ready:<\/p>\n

Only two of 11 elevators needed to lift munitions to the deck of the U.S. Navy\u2019s new $13 billion aircraft carrier have been fully installed, according to a Navy veteran who serves on a key House committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see an end in sight right now\u201d to getting all the elevators working on the USS Gerald R. Ford, the costliest warship ever, Democratic Representative Elaine Luria of Virginia said in an interview. The ship was supposed to be delivered with the Advanced Weapons Elevators, which are moved by magnets rather than cables, working in May 2017.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s another setback for contractor Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc.<\/a> — and for the Navy, which had said in December it planned to complete installation and testing of all 11 elevators before the Ford completed its post-delivery shakedown phase this month, with at least half certified for operation. <\/p>\n

Instead, the shakedown phase has been extended to October and the vessel won\u2019t have all the elevators fully installed — much less functioning — by then, according to Luria, a 20-year Navy surface warfare officer whose served on two aircraft carriers and as shore maintenance coordinator for a third. <\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially, the ship can\u2019t deploy,\u201d Luria said. \u201cIt can\u2019t carry ammunition.\u201d She said the Navy and Huntington Ingalls are trying to solve new problems with doors and hatches lining elevators shafts that don\u2019t meet specifications.<\/p>\n

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said in January<\/a> that he told President Donald Trump to fire him if the service couldn\u2019t fix the weapons elevators by July. Instead, Trump praised the Ford as \u201cphenomenal\u201d on July 22.<\/p>\n

The Ford\u2019s Advanced Weapons Elevators are designed for the carrier\u2019s crew to move as much as 24,000 pounds of ordnance at 150 feet-per-minute, up from the 10,500 pounds at 100 feet-per-minute on the older Nimitz-class carrier. That would increase by more than 30% the number of combat sorties that could launch from the carrier over 24 hours, according to the Navy. <\/p>\n

The elevators aren\u2019t the only issue plaguing the ship, which has had problems with two other core systems — the electromagnetic system to launch planes and the arresting gear to catch them when they land.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What can I say, but, “But I cannot be held responsible for my future actions if I am compelled any longer to share my cell with Professor Norden, late Chief of the Research Staff of my armed forces.”*<\/sup><\/p>\n

The Pentagon is going to innovate itself into oblivion.<\/p>\n

*<\/sup>Seriously, just read the story, you can find it online<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The newest carrier in the US Navy, and the lead ship in the class, the USS Gerald Ford, has experiences many problems related to new technologies implemented on the ship. First, it was the electromagnetic catapults, which are still missing performance and reliability goals, then it was the advanced arrester gear, and now it appears …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[381,588,445,382],"class_list":["post-177623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-defense-procurement","tag-fail","tag-naval","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177623"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}