
The Navy’s new aircraft carrier currently under construction is unlikely to meet the envisioned air sorties requirement, the Pentagon’s top weapons tester said in a report released Wednesday, adding that the goal appears to be historically high and based on “unrealistic assumptions.” The report by the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), said the sortie generation rate requirement--the number of aircraft launched and recovered per day--for the Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) class of aircraft carriers does not account for things…