NORFOLK — The USS Gerald R. Ford arrived at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia on May 16, 2026, after an 11-month deployment. This deployment followed an eight-month maiden voyage that began in January 2024, marking the longest time a United States carrier has remained away from its home port since the Vietnam War.
The ship is scheduled to enter maintenance at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. During this period, maintenance crews will repair damage to a sleeping area that resulted from a March fire which originated in a laundry room. Workers will also upgrade the ship's Vacuum Collection, Holding, and Transfer (VCHT) sewage system.
The carrier had departed Norfolk on June 24, 2025, for operations in Europe, the Caribbean near Venezuela, and Operation Epic Fury against Iran. A fire on March 16 temporarily stopped the carrier from operating during military strikes on Iran. Navy officials stated that the ship's mechanical systems operated within standard parameters throughout the deployment with over 4,000 crew members on board. Approximately 4,600 sailors were aboard the ship upon its return.
The VCHT sewage system utilizes vacuum suction and smaller diameter pipes, a design specific to Ford-class aircraft carriers and commercial cruise ships. In a March 2025 internal email, a loose hose behind toilets was identified as the primary cause of suction loss in the wastewater system. An August 2025 maintenance memorandum reported the recovery of clothing items and a four-foot rope from the sewage lines.
Admiral Daryl Caudle, Chief of Naval Operations, said, "The sanitation systems on board any ship, submarine, destroyer, cruiser, carrier, all have challenges." Ship technicians scheduled training sessions to instruct crew members on proper use of the plumbing system. The maintenance plan includes installing a modification previously used on the USS George H.W. Bush to prevent localized valve failures from disabling plumbing across larger ship sections. The vacuum system caused operational issues on the USS George H.W. Bush in 2011 before the Navy deployed this modification. Rear Admiral Kavon Hakimzadeh said, "Right now it's essentially in quarters, and the new system subdivides it significantly further, so that a problem in one bathroom doesn't cut off a quarter of the ship." A 2020 Government Accountability Office report documented that the Ford-class design requires periodic acid flushes to clear wastewater lines, with each flush costing $400,000 and only being conductible while the ship is docked. A ship officer wrote in an August 15 email, "It's a closed system and thousands of components ship-wide that fail daily."