The USS Gerald R. Ford, the first of the US Navy’s newest generation of aircraft carriers and the largest and most expensive warship ever built, is ready to begin her maiden deployment after years of delay and cost overruns.

The Ford’s keel was laid in 2009 and was estimated to cost $10.49 billion. It ultimately cost $13.316 billion.

The ship was delivered to the Navy in 2017, despite several critical ship’s systems not being operational. As of 2020, only five of eleven of the Advanced Weapons Elevators that lift munitions to the flight deck actually worked. 

Also, the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) that make up the Ford’s next-generation aircraft launch and retrieval capabilities were still unreliable. Likewise, there were problems with the Dual Band Radar (DBR) which will be replaced in later carriers of the class. And lastly, the sewage system had a tendency to clog. Critics referred to the ship as a $13 billion “berthing barge.”

After five years of work, the Ford is finally ready to deploy, with working elevators, reliable EMALS, and arresting gear. Now that most of the bugs have been worked out, the Ford is on track to hit its key goals: a 33% increase in the number of planes that can be launched over a 12-hour period, 17% fewer sailors than on the current Nimitz class, and big savings on operating costs, now estimated at $4 billion over the life of the ship, the Naval Sea Systems Command says.

Thanks to David Rye for contributing to this post.