Recently it was announced that the nuclear air craft carrier USS Gerald Ford might be out of action for 14 months due to... some laundry room fire. (This could be bullshit cover story, who knows) I saw this opinion and it perfectly exemplifies our combat readiness for large scale confrontations that the Iran war is exposing. We've seen dozens of these accidents.. with refueling planes, with other assets, even heard a F-35 was damaged over Iraq.
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The most expensive warship the US Navy has ever deployed, 1 of only 2 available for the largest US military campaign since Barack Obama’s escalation of the Afghan War 17 years ago…everyone remember how that went…is out of service for over a year because someone left too much lint in a dryer or because the crew would rather light a fire, on the same ship they are on, rather than continue taking part in the war…either explanation is a trumpet call of US military decline and superficiality.
What’s startling as a former Marine, having been deployed on a Navy ship, is the question I don’t see being asked: How did that fire get out of control and burn so long?
Damage control is one of the fundamental and existential tasks of any crew on any ship, let alone a warship. The ships are designed around damage control, damage control is a determinant of crew size, and a ship’s crew trains constantly for it. So, what happened on the Ford to allow burning pairs of skivies to take the $15 billion carrier out of the war and send her to the yards for at least a year? Of course, if the maintenance estimate is a year, double it, and triple the costs.
I think two things are important here:
-this fire and the inability to control it are another example, and there are multitudes of these examples, of poor design, construction, functionality and serviceability of American warships (same can be said of many aircraft and ground vehicles). I imagine the investigation will find that survivability and damage control were sacrificed for cost and space, while sexier, more expensive and unproven technologies were preferred over legacy design, construction and systems. The stories of the Ford’s maintenance problems on its first deployment, and this deployment, especially its overflowing heads (toilets), were widely reported.
-Damage control, particularly fire fighting, is more about personnel than anything else. The extended deployment of the Ford, again 8 other carriers were unavailable, forcing the exhausted crew and ship to conduct these operations half a world away when the ship should have been heading home, may have led to command and crew dysfunction due to exhaustion, morale and complacency. It may also signal a Navy that fails to do the fundamental well, whether aboard individual ships, in fleets or out of training.
This isn’t the first concern we’ve seen with naval leadership, command and crew performance. In the past decade, multiple ships have run aground or into other ships, and in 2020, the Bonhomme Richard, with a $5 billion replacement cost, burnt down to the water line after a sailor started a fire. She was subsequently decommissioned.
The dangers here are greater than the risk the Iranians are going to start attacking our ships with catapults and barges full of flaming loads of laundry. This shows weakness across the board for the Navy with regards to ship design and construction, leadership and command, and manning and training. Issues of an under-resourced and over extended fleet are expressing themselves during war - exactly as should be expected.
As this war continues, we’ll see more examples of these failures, accidents, and losses, and they won’t be limited to the Navy. One of several reasons the longer this war continues the more it goes in in Iran’s favor.
Yet, there is likely a think tank conference or a congressional briefing this week in DC advocating war with China…
This post was edited by ofthevoid on Mar 23 2026 09:01am