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The $13 Billion Aircraft Carrier That Has Trouble With Planes

  • Landing system costs soared to fix flaws during development
  • Carrier still can’t launch jets with full extra fuel tanks
The USS Gerald R. Ford.

The USS Gerald R. Ford.

Photographer: Ridge Leoni/U.S. Navy via Getty Images
Updated on

The newest and costliest U.S. aircraft carrier, praised by President Donald Trump and delivered to the Navy on May 31 with fanfare, has been dogged by trouble with fundamentals: launching jets from its deck and catching them when they land.

Now, it turns out that the system used to capture jets landing on the USS Gerald R. Ford ballooned in cost, tripling to $961 million from $301 million, according to Navy documents obtained by Bloomberg News.