{"id":18257,"date":"2019-08-06T07:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T07:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/08\/06\/with-mounting-questions-about-cost-and-survivability-a-shifting-political-landscape-for-us-aircraft-carriers\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:46:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:46:48","slug":"with-mounting-questions-about-cost-and-survivability-a-shifting-political-landscape-for-us-aircraft-carriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/naval\/2019\/08\/06\/with-mounting-questions-about-cost-and-survivability-a-shifting-political-landscape-for-us-aircraft-carriers\/","title":{"rendered":"With mounting questions about cost and survivability, a shifting political landscape for US aircraft carriers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The new chief of naval operations, Adm. Michael Gilday<\/a>, was confirmed quickly by the Senate last week, but lawmakers made clear that the cost and growing vulnerability<\/a> of aircraft carriers to ever-faster and evasive missiles will be among the issues he\u2019s expected to tackle when he officially takes the reins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Navy\u2019s main force projection tool, the carrier, became a punching bag for several lawmakers at Gilday\u2019s confirmation hearing, as they alternately raised the threat posed by Chinese<\/a> and Russian hypersonic missiles and berated the Navy\u2019s future top admiral for the significant delays and cost overruns associated with the new carrier Gerald R. Ford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one point during the July 31 hearing, the Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., told Gilday the Navy\u2019s arrogance on the carrier \u201cought to be criminal.\u201d Later on, longtime friend of the Navy Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, warned that hypersonic missiles were a \u201cnightmare weapon\u201d that threatened to make carriers obsolete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while the lawmakers differed on the future of aircraft carriers and their long-term viability, the hearing left no doubt that Gilday, a career surface warfare officer, has his work cut out for him in proving he can guide the service toward a more stable future for the Navy\u2019s most expensive and strategically invaluable assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be clear, Inhofe does not oppose carriers, and he has publicly reminded multiple Trump administration officials of the Navy\u2019s legal requirement to maintain 11 of them. Inhofe was in the bipartisan chorus of lawmakers who opposed Pentagon plans to cut costs by decommissioning the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman<\/a> before the administration scuttled<\/a> those plans this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to the Ford program, Inhofe plans to keep the Navy on a short leash and pressed Gilday to commit that he would work to prevent the kind of widespread \u201cfirst-in-class\u201d issues that have plagued the Ford. It\u2019s an issue with some urgency behind it, as the Navy prepares to tackle the new Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine for nuclear deterrent patrols, as well as a next-generation frigate, new classes of unmanned warships and a new large surface combatant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Navy entered into this contract in 2008, which, combined with other contracts, have ballooned the cost of the ship more than $13 billion without understanding the technical risks, the costs or the schedules, and you know this ought to be criminal,\u201d Inhofe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t