The U.S. Navy's new but problem-plagued nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), was to have joined the fleet last March but teething troubles with its new systems have pushed that back to an uncertain date.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said there has been progress in resolving troublesome issues on the Gerald R. Ford (one of which is its advanced arresting gear) but hesitated to predict when the $12.9 billion first-in-class warship first will join the fleet.

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The delay is preventing the Gerald R. Ford from going to sea and beginning engineering trials. The ship remains firmly moored at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia.

The Navy plans to have 10 ships in the Gerald R. Ford-class. Three have been announced. Apart from the Gerald R. Ford, the other two carriers so far are the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) and the USS Enterprise (CVN-80).

The Gerald R. Ford-class is a class of supercarriers being built to replace some of the Navy's existing Nimitz-class carriers. The new warships have a hull similar to the Nimitz carriers, but introduce new technologies such as the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS); the advanced arresting gear (AAG) plus other design features that improve efficiency and cut operating costs, including a smaller crew.

Among Mabus' worries are the carrier's power generation capability and its advanced arresting gear that allows planes to land safely.

Last September, a serious voltage regulator problem on the carrier's four main turbine generators (MTGs) prevented engineers from running the motors up to full power, but this problem been identified and a fix decided upon.

The MTGs are a significant element in the ship's power generation system that can develop some three times the electrical power of previous carriers. The problem came to light last June when a small electrical explosion took place on the No. 2 MTG during testing.

Speaking about this problem, Mabus said, "I think we're a long ways down that road" to fixing the power-generation issue. He said getting to the root cause of the generator problem "is going well."

Mabus said he can't specify a delivery date until the problems plaguing the carrier are solved.

"I'm not going to give you a date. But the testing is going well."

He again restated an oft-stated observation the Ford suffers from a decision made more than a decade ago to pack new technology onto the ship instead of phasing in new systems over three ships.

"It's not the shipyard," he said. "It was us doing this to them."

TagsUSS Gerald R. Ford, U.S. Navy, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, USS John F. Kennedy, USS Enterprise, Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System