Flawed Bomb Elevators Leave Inhofe Leery of Buying Two Carriers
- ‘The elevators still don’t work,’ Senate panel’s chief says
- Inhofe stops short of ruling out two-in-one carrier contract
The USS Gerald R. Ford
Photographer: Ridge Leoni/U.S. Navy via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The new head of the Senate Armed Services panel says he’s leery of backing the Pentagon’s plan to buy two aircraft carriers in one contract so long as contractor Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. is struggling to fix the elevators needed to lift bombs from below deck.
“I think the case for two right now is weaker because of the lack of success in getting everything working” on the USS Gerald R. Ford, the first vessel in the new class of carriers, Senator James Inhofe said in an interview. The Oklahoma Republican spoke after joining Navy officials in a visit Monday to the Huntington Ingalls shipyard in Newport News, Virginia.