Navy admits tech troubles with new aircraft carrier

A senior Navy official admitted the military branch should not have loaded its new class of aircraft carriers with so many new technologies.

“We as a Navy and the Department of Defense have a lot to be held accountable for with respect to certain decisions that were made to put in all those new technologies at once on that new platform,” said Undersecretary of the Navy Thomas Modly, according to military.com.

The USS Gerald Ford has been beset with expensive mechanical problems, including issues with weapons elevators and the carrier launch and arresting gear.

During an event at the Brookings Institution in D.C., Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer lashed out at Rep. Elaine Luria, a Virginia Democrat and retired Navy officer, for calling the Ford a “$13 billion berthing barge,” a comment he chided as “disparaging.”

At the same event, Mr. Spencer also criticized Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries, the USS Ford’s builder.

“Congress turns around and says, ’Navy, this is your fault,’” Mr. Spencer said. “I have an extra seat up there when I testify and I have not seen Huntington Ingalls, Newport News called up on the Hill to testify.”