The USS Gerald R. Ford arrived at a port in Crete on March 23 after being forced to leave the Middle East, where it had been engaged in the war against Iran, when a fire broke out in its laundry room. But the problems facing this massive vessel run far deeper, Bloomberg reports.

The Gerald R. Ford, commissioned in late May 2017, is the most expensive warship ever built by the United States, valued at $13.2 billion. It was sent to sea for extended operations — including engagements in conflicts involving Venezuela and Iran — despite unresolved questions about how well it would perform under wartime conditions.

According to a new assessment by the Pentagon's testing office, concerns about the carrier range from potentially serious to mundane, with many issues surfacing after combat testing began in October 2022.

Among the persisting problems are insufficient current test data to assess the "operational suitability" or reliability of several key systems, including the jet aircraft launch and recovery system, radar, the ship's ability to continue operating under enemy fire, and the elevators used to move weapons and munitions from the hold to the flight deck. The Pentagon's testing office stated that there is currently "insufficient data" to determine the "operational effectiveness of the Ford class" due to incomplete realistic combat testing.

This means it remains unclear how well the Ford and other ships of this class — which have yet to be delivered — can detect, track, or intercept enemy aircraft, anti-ship missiles, or small assault craft. It is also unclear how the carrier's systems will perform under the sustained tempo of wartime flight operations.

The Ford, which had been deployed to the Red Sea for operations against Iran, ultimately left the battlefield for Crete not as a result of enemy attack, but after a laundry room fire broke out aboard the vessel — resulting in more than 200 sailors being treated for smoke inhalation, Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia wrote last week to Navy Secretary John Phelan.