The Pentagon and Navy are staying mum a day after President Trump startled the defense community by saying he nixed the new aircraft launch system on Ford-class supercarriers.
“We’re going to maintain close contact with the White House as we develop future budget requests, I don’t have anything more than that,” Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said Friday.
Meanwhile, the Navy said Thursday it would not comment.
Trump told Time magazine this week that he ordered the Navy to return to steam-powered catapults because the newly developed electromagnetic systems — a key upgrade to the $13 billion carriers — cost too much.
“[You’re] going to goddamned steam, the digital costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good,” Trump said.
The Pentagon and Navy are likely avoiding public statements because the president’s order put them in a difficult position with few good options, said Mark Cancian, senior adviser in the international security program at Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“I would guess it would be billions of dollars and years of effort” to replace the electromagnetic catapults, Cancian said. “So that is why you are hearing crickets because it is just not doable.”
The first of the Navy’s advanced fleet of supercarriers, the USS Gerald Ford, completed initial sea trials this month and is fitted out with the catapult, called the electromagnetic aircraft launch system.
The EMALS system has been problematic throughout its development, but the Navy is 4 to 5 years past the point where it could have changed course and opted for traditional steam-powered systems, which also have a variety of shortcomings, Cancian said.
Now, its best option is to throw more money at the catapults to work out any remaining problems, Cancian said.
Trump “puts his finger on a real problem, the problem is he is years too late,” he said.
The president has also publicly criticized the F-35 fighter jet program, which became notorious over the past decade as the most expensive procurement program in Pentagon history but has recently started to come down in cost.
Now, the Navy is faced with the potential of a major design change to the Ford-class carriers, which also have had ballooning costs, just before the first ship is commissioned.
Cancian said if pressed by the White House, the service may decide to do an assessment on the EMALS system, which could prove to the president that its decision on the electromagnetic catapults was the right one.
“First, they are going to say nothing and see if they can get away with it,” he said.
