Ford Class Notes

Here’s some tidbits pertaining to the Ford class, as noted in the recent CRS report.[1]
 
 
Carriers – The Navy is statutorily (10 U.S.C. 8062(b)) required to maintain 11 operational carriers.  Note that one (now, two due to chronic maintenance delays) carrier is always in long term overhaul so we only have 10 (now 9) operational carriers.  Note that the Navy’s own 30 year plan indicates that the Navy would operate less than the mandated 11 carriers for over half of the 30 year period of the plan.  This is blatant disregard for Congressional mandates.
 
Air Wings – The Navy is statutorily (10 U.S.C. 8062(e)) required to maintain 9 air wings.  The original statute required 10 air wings but Congress acceded to the Navy’s request for 9.
 
Early Retirement – The Navy is statutorily (10 U.S.C. 8062(g)) prohibited from retiring a nuclear carrier prior to its first refueling.  This was implemented in response to the Navy’s attempt to early retire Nimitz class carriers prior to their refueling.
 
CVN-79 John F. Kennedy – CVN-79 has already exceeded its cost cap and the Navy has revised the cap upward.
 
CVN-80 Enterprise – The Navy now estimates that CVN-80 delivery will be delayed 18-26 months.
 
CVN-81 Doris Miller – The Navy estimates the cost of CVN-81 to be $14B.
 
Cost Cap – The provisions that established and later amended the cost caps are listed below.  Note the continual increases in cap levels.  It’s not really a cap if it’s continually increased, is it?
 

Section 122 of the FY2007 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5122/P.L. 109-364 of October 17, 2006) established a procurement cost cap for CVN-78 of $10.5 billion … and a procurement cost cap for subsequent Ford-class carriers of $8.1 billion each …

 

Section 121 of the FY2014 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 3304/P.L. 113-66 of December 26, 2013) amended the procurement cost cap for the CVN-78 program to provide a revised cap of $12,887.0 million for CVN-78 and a revised cap of $11,498.0 million for each follow-on ship

 

Section 122 of the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (S. 1356/P.L. 114-92 of November 25, 2015) further amended the cost cap for the CVN-78 program to provide a revised cap of $11,398.0 million for each follow-on ship in the program

 

Section 121(a) of the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2810/P.L. 115-91 of December 12, 2017) further amended the cost cap for the CVN-78 program to provide a revised cap of $12,568.0 million for CVN-80 and subsequent ships in the program … The cap for CVN-79 was kept at $11,398.0 million … The provision also amended the basis for adjusting the caps for inflation, and excluded certain costs from being counted against the caps.

 

Section 121 of the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act (S. 1790/P.L. 116-92 of December 20, 2019) further amended the cost cap for the CVN-78 program to provide revised caps of $13,224.0 million for CVN-78, $11,398.0 million for CVN–79, $12,202.0 million for CVN–80, and $12,451.0 million for CVN–81. The provision directs the Navy to exclude from these figures costs for CVN–78 class battle spares, interim spares, and increases attributable to economic inflation after December 1, 2018.

 
 
Discussion
 
What these notes demonstrate is the blatant disregard the Navy has for Congress’ wishes (and laws!).  Most of these legal mandates are the result of the Navy ignoring Congress’ directives.  The problem is that there are no consequences for the Navy’s disregard of Congress.  New laws need to have statutory criminal penalties associated with them.  Currently, the Navy can ignore Congress and there is no criminal penalty.  A minimum penalty for failure to meet Congress’ mandates should be termination from service, forfeiture of pay and pension, and a year in jail for everyone associated with a particular failing, beginning with the CNO and moving down the line.  Perhaps that would encourage compliance with Congress’ wishes.
 
To be fair, Congress is not blameless in this, by any means.  Congress keeps appeasing the Navy by raising cost caps, approving flag positions, and increasing the Navy’s budget.  Congress needs to institute a moratorium on approval of flag positions until the Navy begins obeying Congress, hold firm on cost caps, and begin decreasing the Navy’s budget 10% per year until the Navy begins obeying Congress.
 
The Navy has forgotten that it serves Congress and the people, not the other way around.
 
 
 
[1]Congressional Research Service, “Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress”, 12-Jul-2024, RS20643