USS Gerald R. Ford: EMALS Catapults, Plasma Trash and $400K Toilet Flushes

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The Gerald R. Ford class of aircraft carriers exists because the Nimitz class ran out of room. A 2005 RAND report concluded the 1960s-era design had hit its limits: the A4W reactors lacked spare electrical capacity, and decades of added topside equipment had eroded the center of gravity margin. The CVN-21 program produced USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), a roughly $13 billion ship in a class that cost over $37 billion to develop. Two new Bechtel A1B reactors are smaller and simpler yet deliver at least 25 percent more power, and the ship uses only about half its electrical capacity, a reserve held for future weapons across a service life expected to run to 2105.

The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System replaced steam catapults with linear induction motors that launch more smoothly and need no fresh water, but it suffered reliability problems, and in August 2026 President Donald Trump ordered a return to steam catapults starting with the future USS Doris Miller. The Navy forecasts 160 sorties a day and 270 in a surge, figures former test director Michael Gilmore called unrealistic. Narrow vacuum sewage pipes clog with scale, and each acid flush to clear them costs $400,000, according to the GAO. The Ford made its combat debut in the 2026 Iran War, Operation Epic Fury, leading Carrier Strike Group 12 in the eastern Mediterranean against drones launched from Lebanon.

• The island was shrunk and moved aft, and linear-motor weapons elevators keep ordnance out of the path of taxiing aircraft.
• Automation cuts the crew by about 700 sailors compared with a Nimitz carrier, and sailors sleep in 40-rack rooms.
• The Plasma Arc Waste Destruction System vaporizes combustible trash at about 10,000 degrees.
• Starting with USS John F. Kennedy, the $500 million Dual Band Radar gave way to the roughly $180 million Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar.
• A laundry fire in March 2026 paused flight operations and later sent the ship to Croatia for repairs.