‘Machining errors’ send CVN 78 home

The Navy’s costliest warship, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), suffered another failure at sea with a “main thrust bearing” in its propulsion system and forced back to its Virginia homeport that raises more questions about the new class of aircraft carrier. A previously undisclosed problem with a propulsion system bearing was announced in January, and had not yet been resolved. In the meantime, the Navy is poised to request approval from Congress to speed up a contract for a fourth carrier. The Ford class was to have been limited to three ships. The first failure with the propulsion system occurred in April 2017 during sea trials and before the ship was delivered to the Navy. CVN 78 was built by Huntington Ingalls Industries in Newport News, Va. The ship is scheduled to be operational in 2022. The Navy and HII-Virginia “are evaluating the case for a claim against the manufacturer,” says William Couch, spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command. Neither Couch nor HII spokesperson Beci Brenton declined to identify the manufacturer. General Electric is responsible for the propulsion system part, according to the Navy program office, which said after the previous failure and review that the carrier’s thrust bearings identified “machining errors” by the company, located in Lynn, Mass., as the “root cause” of the issue “during the original manufacturing.” GE spokesperson Deborah Case e-mailed Bloomberg Government that “GE did produce the gears for the CVN-78 … (but are) no longer producing gears for CVN-78” and “cannot comment on the investigation.” The defects “will be fully corrected,” said Couch, during the ship’s upcoming “post-shakedown availability” phase. The post-shakedown period has been delayed until this summer, in part because of the failure, and completion in about 12 months. (Source: Bloomberg Government 05/07/18) Gulf Coast Note: HII-Pascagoula, Miss.’s Ingalls shipyard is a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries in Virginia.