The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier has pulled into port in Crete after a laundry room fire forced it to leave operations against Iran. The fire resulted in over 200 sailors needing treatment for smoke inhalation, as Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, noted in a letter to Navy Secretary John Phelan.
Beyond the fire, the Pentagon is openly admitting that the most expensive warship ever built may not be combat-ready. According to Bloomberg, a recent assessment from the Pentagon’s testing office laid out a range of concerns, from serious issues to minor ones, many of which surfaced after the ship began combat testing in October 2022.
