Pentagon’s Chief Weapons Buyer Promises Less Secrecy in Reports
- Navy labeled new carriers’ details ‘For Official Use Only’
- Congress objected to withholding previously public information
Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier.
Photographer: Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ridge Leoni/U.S. Navy via Getty Images
Under President Barack Obama, the annual Pentagon report on the $58 billion Gerald R. Ford class of aircraft carriers openly listed its planned capabilities. That changed under President Donald Trump, when the same information was stamped “For Official Use Only.”
In 2017, the Navy’s stamp on two pages about the troubled program rendered the entire 77-page report on the vessels restricted over information such as the estimated crew size. Adding to the confusion, the Navy removed the restriction on those pages in the carrier report issued last year, only to impose it on data about the contract with Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. for the second vessel in the class.