As a naval architect in commercial shipping for several decades, I will admit to that I really do not understand the way the US Navy designs and builds ships. In the world of commercial shipping, the process is to design the ship and to specify the equipment before placing an order or starting construction. The Navy seems to prefer to sign contracts and begin construction before the designs are completed. It seems to be the most inefficient and costly way to build ships.

The two most obvious examples are the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and the destroyer USS Zumwalt. The aircraft carrier was delivered without working elevators to bring bombs and ammunition to planes on the flight deck. The destroyer was delivered without the Navy purchasing ammunition for its main guns. So, on the most expensive aircraft carrier ever built, its planes cannot be loaded with bombs, while on the most expensive destroyer ever built, it cannot use its primary weapon system because the high-tech shells simply cost too much to fire. 

It is almost as if a pacifist with a twisted sense of humor was behind the procurement of both classes of ships. 

A Carrier without Working Elevators 

The 11 Advanced Weapons Elevators on the $13 billion USS Gerald R. Ford use magnets rather than cables to raise and lower the elevators. So far they have demonstrated what are described as unsafe “uncommanded movements” since 2015, according to the Navy.  The new carrier completed acceptance trials in 2017 apparently without working elevators, necessary for operations in time of war.

Bloomberg quotes Shelby Oakley, a director with the U.S. Government Accountability Office who monitors Navy shipbuilding, who says that the elevator system is “just another example of the Navy pushing technology risk into design and construction — without fully demonstrating it.”

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer describes the elevators as our “our Achilles heel.” The Navy promises to have the elevators working soon. The Ford is the first of a class of five new carriers.

A Destroyer that Can’t Fire its Big Guns

The USS Zumwalt “stealth destroyer,” which cost more than $4 billion dollars, excluding R&D, was designed to be a “land attack destroyer.”  In addition to a stealthy small radar profile and surface-piercing tumblehome hull, the ship features two Advanced Gun Systems firing Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP). These weapons are supposed to be able to fire 10 rounds per minute with a range of more than 80 nautical miles. The problem is that the price of the LRLAP rounds rose from an originally estimated $50,000 per round to over $800,000, and possibly higher. The rounds became simply too expensive to shoot.

So, unable to meet its mission of destroying targets ashore, the Navy changed the destroyer’s mission from shore-bombardment to ship-killer. The Zumwalt already has 80 vertical launch tubes, which can fire Sea Sparrow and Tomahawk missiles. New Raytheon’s SM-6 missiles are also being installed. 

The open secret with the Zumwalt Class destroyers is that they are intended to be fitted with rail-guns. The ships have the ability to generate far more electricity than would be required for a conventional destroyer but would be perfect for rail guns, which are hi-tech electromagnetic kinetic energy weapons.  Of course, the rail-guns are not ready for service.  Depending on who you listen to, the rail-guns may never see deployment or are still under development.  In either case, they are not ready yet. 

So, if the Navy really needed “land attack destroyers,” they are out of luck.