Mary-Louise Hoffman
The U.S. Navy and Huntington Ingalls Industries strive to build the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier without exceeding the authorized budget, said HII CEO Mike Petters, the Daily Press reported Thursday.
Hugh Lessig writes Petters was responding to a Government Accountability Office report that predicts the Navy’s supercarrier project would not meet the $12.9 billion spending limit set by Congress due to high technology and testing costs.
“Everyone in the program is absolutely committed to delivering that ship under the cost cap,” Petters told an audience at a recent industry conference in New York.
Cmdr. Thurraya Kent, a spokesperson for the Navy, said the branch plans to defer work on non-critical Ford segments until after delivery to allow HII to complete essential systems, according to the newspaper.
“This is a prudent action to control both cost and schedule in this sole source environment on this first of class ship,” Kent added, according to Lessig’s article.
