The Single Most Expensive Piece Of Military Equipment Ever Has Reached A Massive Milestone

Photo courtesy of Huntington Ingalls Ind. via Navy

The lead ship in a new class of carriers, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is the most expensive piece of military equipment ever created. And it now has a perfectly-laid flight deck that could one day see 6th generation fighters screeching across its surface.

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The Ford will run about $11.5 billion, with three ships costing about $40.2 billion.

Even given these generous estimates, the Navy figures that the USS Gerald R. Ford could cost as much as $1.1 billion more than planned, making it far and away the service's most expensive warship.

Bloomberg reported the Ford's rising costs in August, when planners understood their worst-case assessment would put the carrier at about 21 percent over its target cost (via Hampton Roads).

Currently assembled in Newport News, Virginia, the Ford-class will replace the Nimitz-class carriers and will include an array of new technology.

• Advanced arresting gear used to grab planes as they land on the deck.
• Automation, which reduces crew requirements by several hundred from the Nimitz class carrier.
• The updated RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow missile system.
• AN/SPY-3 dual-band radar (DBR), as developed for Zumwalt class destroyers.
• An Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) in place of traditional steam catapults for launching aircraft.
• A new nuclear reactor design (the A1B reactor) for greater power generation.
• Stealthier features to help reduce radar profile.
• The ability to launch the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler, and the F-35C Lightning II.

With fewer crew and the most modern equipment, the Navy hopes to reduce the cost of future carriers while an improved design of the ship's "island" will allow more sorties to be flown per day than before.

The Ford is expected to hit the water in 2015, with a 10 carrier fleet hoped for by 2040.