Nine Months, Broken Toilets, and One Laundry Fire Later, the USS Gerald Ford Is Facing 14 Months Out of Action

The USS Gerald R Ford, the United States Navy's most advanced and expensive aircraft carrier, has been pulled from active combat operations in the Red Sea and docked at Naval Support Activity Souda Bay in Crete — not after a missile strike, but after a fire that started in its laundry room. The incident, which occurred on 12 March, may appear routine on the surface. But for a ship already stretched to its limits after nine months at sea, persistent sewage failures and a crew of nearly 4,500 sailors already at the limits of a nine-month deployment, the fire has exposed what defence analysts are now calling a potentially crippling maintenance crisis.

Defence analyst Jack Buckby has warned that the USS Gerald R. Ford faces a potential 12-to-14-month maintenance period, noting that 'between fire damage and deferred maintenance, on top of the long deployment, there is a real risk that the carrier could be out of action for an extended period of time.' For America's flagship warship — a £10.3 billion ($13 billion) nuclear-powered supercarrier — being sidelined for over a year carries consequences well beyond the ship itself.

A Fire That Was 'Just the Straw'

A US Central Command statement confirmed that 'on 12 March, USS Gerald R Ford (CVN-78) experienced a fire that originated in the ship's main laundry spaces,' adding that 'the cause of the fire was not combat-related and is contained' and that 'there is no damage to the ship's propulsion plant.' The Navy initially maintained the carrier remained fully operational — a claim that quickly unravelled as the full scale of the damage became apparent.

The fire in the aft laundry facility 'resulted in a major damage control response that displaced sailors across the carrier and disrupted operations throughout the ship.' The smoke damage extended to berthing areas, requiring the Navy to take 1,000 mattresses off the future USS John F. Kennedy in Newport News, Virginia, over the weekend to send to the Ford. Roughly 600 sailors were displaced from their sleeping areas, either because their specific bed was damaged or because entire spaces were rendered uninhabitable by smoke or water damage.

Buckby noted that the fire 'isn't the only reason the repairs are required — it's really just the straw that broke the camel's back,' pointing to months of high operational tempo and known system failures with no opportunity for scheduled maintenance.

Months of Mounting Trouble

The Ford's difficulties did not begin with the laundry room blaze. Throughout its current deployment, the Ford has experienced plumbing issues with the nearly 650 toilets aboard the vessel, with its vacuum collection system — which transports and disposes of wastewater — repeatedly malfunctioning. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle had been so concerned in January about the condition of the ship and its crew that he said he would 'push back' on any order to extend its deployment. The deployment was extended regardless.

Defence expert Kris Osborn of Warrior Maven noted that since June 2025, the Ford 'pivoted from Venezuela to intensive combat operations against Iran, sustaining a high-tempo sortie rate that has accelerated mechanical wear,' with the carrier supporting more than 7,000 strikes against Iran during that stretch.

A Record Deployment With a Heavy Cost

The Ford began its most recent deployment on 24 June 2025, and as of the time of the fire had been at sea for 261 days. Should the Ford remain deployed through mid-April, it will break the post-Vietnam War 294-day record for carrier deployments, a record currently held by the USS Abraham Lincoln, which set it in 2020.

The USS Dwight D Eisenhower, the last carrier to make an extended deployment, saw its planned maintenance extended for half a year as a result of the additional strain, with the Navy's Fiscal Year 2026 budget showing that work on that ship was supposed to have been completed last July but remains unfinished. The Ford, analysts warn, could face an even steeper recovery.

What This Means for US Naval Power

With the Ford sidelined, the US Navy faces a significant gap in carrier availability at a moment of active military engagement. The USS George H.W. Bush is currently being fast-tracked to relieve the carrier, as US Central Command works to sustain the 7,000-plus strikes conducted since late February during Operation Epic Fury.

Analysts warn that the lack of carrier availability reverberates across the rest of the fleet, limiting the options commanders have when planning or preparing for contingencies — and putting the overall carrier availability plan out of alignment. For a Navy already managing a war with Iran while juggling ageing vessels and deferred maintenance schedules across the fleet, the Ford's extended absence adds another layer of strain to an already stretched force.