Ready to Lose the Aircraft Carrier: US Navy Downplayed the Scale of the Fire on the USS Gerald R. Ford

The fire on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which occurred during an operation against Iran, was significantly larger and more destructive than the US Navy had claimed.

This was reported by CNN, citing sources who described the incident in March.

According to them, the fire was not contained until 30 hours later, as the ship’s fire suppression system had completely failed.

The sailors had to urgently extinguish the fire on their own. A significant number of living quarters and auxiliary compartments were completely gutted. Two sailors required medical attention.

For more than two days, the carrier’s aircraft were unable to take off from the aircraft carrier to participate in combat operations.

“I seriously thought we were going to lose the ship,” one of the aircraft carrier’s crew members told CNN, describing his feelings.

According to him, the situation was such that “it was fight or die.”

Video footage obtained by the network shows ship compartments completely destroyed by fire, charred walls and ceilings, burned-out bunks, various structural elements, and mangled metal.

Due to the damage, approximately 600 sailors lost their sleeping quarters.

A high-ranking US official told the TV channel that the US Navy’s statement downplayed the impact of the fire, as the aircraft carrier was in the Red Sea to support US military operations against Iran, and the fire did indeed affect its combat readiness.

Following the fire, the USS Gerald R. Ford was withdrawn from the Red Sea and sent for urgent repairs to a base in Crete, and later to Split.

After that, the ship re-entered the Red Sea and, in May, returned from its record-breaking 11-month deployment to its homeport in Norfolk, Virginia. According to sources, the repairs to be carried out on board will take at least a year. During this time, the ship will be unavailable for operational missions.

The aircraft carrier played one of the key roles in the US military operation against Iran. Wave after wave of its carrier-based aircraft took off to bomb Iranian targets.

Commissioned in 2017, the $13 billion USS Gerald R. Ford is the newest and most technologically advanced of the 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the US Navy.