The US Navy, of course, is desperately trying to get authorization to build more Ford-class carriers. Ironic that they name the carrier after a violence broker famous for being rather clumsy and unable to navigate around.
The first of class doesn’t work properly: it cannot reliably launch and retrieve aircraft nor does it have a weapons elevator system that works all the time.
Stop the madness.
Although the Navy wants to achieve and maintain in coming years a fleet of 381 manned battle force ships, including 12 aircraft carriers, force-structure studies done by the Navy that eventually led to the 381-ship goal showed future Navy force structures that included 8 to 12 carriers, to be supplemented (in the case of the lower end of that range) by up to 6 light aircraft carriers (CVLs). The Navy does not currently operate CVLs. The Navy in recent years has experimented with the concept of using an LHA-type amphibious assault ship with an embarked group of F-35B Joint Strike Fighters as a CVL.28.
https://sgp.fas.org/crs/weapons/RS20643.pdf
The most criminal event occurred in 2019 when it was obvious there were serious problems with the Ford design that may be un-fixable. Admirals pressed Congress to fund two more Fords earlier than planned, as though they wanted to get them under construction before Congress and media learned about problems.
https://www.g2mil.com/EMALS.htm
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