It's not great, but this still worries me a lot less than other troubled programs. - At the end of the day, the Nimitz class carriers are still the most advanc

It's not great, but this still worries me a lot less than other troubled programs. - At the end of the day, the Nimitz class carriers are still the most advanced in the world by about 30 years. We have a lot of time to get the Ford class working properly. - In the absolute worst-case scenario, the electromagnetic launch and corkscrew arrest systems can be swapped out for steam systems in a fairly straightforward manner. It won't be cheap, but it's not a big mystery. There aren't major problems with the other new systems on the Ford class that I know of. It will have plenty of power needed for future weapon platforms (railguns, energy weapons, etc). You could argue that carriers will be obsolete etc, but that's a different question and fairly speculative. There's not really a scenario where the Ford class puts us behind the Nimitz class after 2025 or so. Other programs are fundamentally a bit shakier and deserve more worry. The F35 doesn't have a single "bad" part you can swap out to fall back to the capabilities of a fourth-gen fighter. Unfortunately, we're basically stuck with them, because if we cancel the F35, the British navy and the marines will have a dozen totally useless carriers without a modern VTOL fighter to put on them.