Stackley: CVN-78 acceptance trials planned by end of May

The Navy's new Ford-class aircraft carrier (CVN-78) is expected to head out to sea for acceptance trials by the end of this month, according to the service's top official.

The next-generation aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford is on track for acceptance trials "before Memorial Day," acting Navy Secretary Sean Stackley told reporters following a speech at the U.S. Naval Institute's annual meeting in Washington. Depending on the results, the Navy expects "to turn delivery around quickly after that," he added.

"The crew is already onboard operating the systems," Stackley said. "She's at the naval station. She's loaded out, so the steps to go from acceptance trials to delivery is going to be contingent upon what are the critical 'star-card' type of deficiencies, if any, that are identified during acceptance trials."
The trials are the last tests CVN-78 has to pass before Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding delivers the ship to the Navy.

"We came out of builder's trials strong," Stackley said. "We're correcting those deficiencies that we need to correct prior to going into acceptance trials. I'm pretty confident right now in a good [acceptance trials] and a good turnaround to deliver the ship."

The acting Navy secretary also demurred when asked about President Trump's negative critique of a new technology used on the Ford-class, the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launching System (EMALS). In an interview with Time published May 11, Trump said he found the EMALS "is no good" and told an unnamed official "you [sic] going to goddamned steam" during his March 2 visit to CVN-78.

"I'm not going to get into a Q&A regarding the comments that the president made," Stackley said. "We have not briefed the president on the Ford-class program. He did go down to Newport News and visited the ship and was onboard the ship. I wasn't present for that visit. I don't know what his source of information was with regards to the [EMALS] system."