USS George Washington’s Mideast Arrival Highlights Strain On Carrier Force

- The Navy's carrier force is cracking like a threadbare hull on its last relay hop, and the brass still think meat wallets on flattops are the answer. USS George Washington slid into CENTCOM to relieve the Lincoln — a crew so burned out they'd have envied a licensed corpse — while the Western Pacific goes carrier-blind for the second time in two years. The real scandal isn't the deployment math; it's that the Ford class keeps bleeding time on automated systems that can't pass certification. USS John F. Kennedy's delivery slipped to March 2027 because the Advanced Arresting Gear and Advanced Weapons Elevator — both heavily automated, software-dependent systems — still aren't done. Every extra month