It has been plagued by plumbing problems during its deployment, affecting the nearly 650 toilets.



Aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford arrives in Croatia for repairs


https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/03/28/aircraft-carrier-uss...

The Ford, America’s newest and the world’s largest carrier, was operating in the Red Sea in support of Operation Epic Fury when a non-combat fire broke out in its main laundry room on March 12, injuring three sailors.

Nearly 200 sailors were also treated for smoke-related issues, a U.S. official said at the time. The fire took hours to bring under control and had an impact on roughly 100 sleeping berths.


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The Ford has four catapults, so the crew can shift from one to another in case of a failure. But the catapult system includes a significant design flaw. Sailors do not have any way to electrically isolate each catapult. To work on one, the entire EMALS system has to be deenergized. That means the crew would have to stop launching aircraft to make repairs. Doing so would be clearly problematic if multiple catapults failed at the same time during combat operations.

The Navy’s glitzy new aircraft carrier isn’t very good at launching aircraft, but the crew has even more reason to knock the ship’s delicate plumbing system. The vessel’s designers rejected a traditional sewage system and instead charged taxpayers to develop a vacuum system similar to the kind used in commercial aircraft, but scaled up to accommodate the needs of a 4,000 person crew.

The Government Accountability Office, however, warned in 2020 that the sewage system clogged frequently and required regular acid flushes to clear calcium buildups in the system’s narrow pipes. Each flush costs approximately $400,000.

Not surprisingly then, the Ford’s sewage system has been a constant source of trouble. Sailors report daily breakdowns of the system. NPR reported that during a four-day period in 2025, engineers logged 205 breakdowns. Embarked sailors are frequently told the heads (the nautical term for toilets) are unavailable for a period because technicians are making urgent repairs to the system.

The effect on the crew’s morale must be profound. Reports from the ship include finding socks and pieces of rope in the sewage system. A single incident could be chalked up to an accident, but when it happens repeatedly, it begins to look like sabotage. No clear evidence of foul play has emerged, but a disgruntled crew can certainly resort to such means if quality of life on the ship continues to deteriorate.

Sailors have no choice but to trust their lives to the ship. If the Navy can’t provide them working toilets, how can they really trust the rest of the ship’s capabilities? The Ford’s catapults don’t work like they are supposed to. It would be perfectly reasonable for a sailor to question whether or not the ship’s missile defenses will work as required.

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/uss-gerald-ford/