VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) — President Donald Trump used one of his Thanksgiving Day phone calls to service members to raise questions on the reliability of the Navy's new electromagnetic aircraft system versus older steam catapults.
Trump was famously critical last year of the Newport News-built USS Gerald R. Ford's "EMALS," claiming the system, "no good."
"We may have to do some tweaking as we go to the next ship in the class, and the next ship in the class, and then retrofit once we work out the bugs," said retired rear admiral Mike Groothousen. "But it's the path we've chosen we're going to go down, and I believe we're going make it work."
It is not the first time the first-in-class Ford has had problems. It is is the most expensive warship ever built, at an estimated $12.9 billion. It was delivered to the Navy nearly two years late and 23 percent over budget.
Groothousen flew Navy jets and was commanding officer of the USS Harry S. Truman at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He said he's certain the Navy and Newport News Shipbuilding will correct any problems and that the Ford will go on to help U.S. pilots fight and win wars for decades to come.
Groothausen said the Ford's EMALS will require far less energy and will allow for more airplanes to be launched more quickly.
"It's efficiency, it's maintenance, it's new technology," he said. "You're always going to have glitches. But what it brings us in savings in energy and what the ship can do with the other electric power is phenomenal."
► Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13News Now App.