The world’s largest aircraft carrier is experiencing difficulties with a service that is an integral part of every sailor’s life — the bathroom.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, which cost roughly $13 billion to manufacture and most recently played a part in U.S. strikes against Venezuela that saw the capture of its sitting President Nicolás Maduro, is facing consistent plumbing issues with the nearly 650 toilets aboard the vessel.
The complications primarily involve the Ford’s vacuum collection, holding and transfer system, or VCHT, which transports and disposes wastewater by sucking fecal matter through pipes using pressure.
The issues, however, have had no effect on operational readiness or mission execution, according to Lt. Cmdr. David Carter, a spokesperson for U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
The problems were also typically isolated incidents that didn’t wreak havoc on the rest of the sewage system, Carter said.
“A repair takes, on average, between 30 minutes and two hours,” Carter said. “During this time, the rest of the system continues to operate independently.”
Carter also said that the maintenance demands have decreased as the deployment has gone on and that system improvements are coming down the pike, as maintenance availabilities arise.
While Carter said the Ford couldn’t see service call logs regarding maintenance requests for outside assistance, NPR published a report that said the Ford had called for assistance with the lackluster toilets 42 times since 2023, with 32 calls coming in 2025 alone.
A dozen specifically came after the Ford left Naval Station Norfolk on June 24, 2025, and began its regularly scheduled deployment, which eventually shifted to the U.S. Southern Command area of operations, NPR reported.
NPR also reportedly obtained copies of emails that showed there were 205 breakdowns with the toilets over a span of four days.
One of the emails placed the onus on sailors and said they were mistreating and destroying the sewage system.
Carter confirmed to Military Times in an emailed statement that the Ford averaged about one maintenance call per day and that those calls were often the result of “improper materials being introduced to the system.”
Military Times requested further information on what those improper materials were.
The bathroom issues aboard the Ford, meanwhile, are not a new phenomenon.
A 2020 Government Accountability Office report pointed out that the sewage pipes woven throughout the ship were too narrow to properly serve the flushes of the 4,000-plus crew members onboard.
To unclog the toilets, the Navy has been forced to spend $400,000 per flush of a unique acidic chemical designed to flush out and unburden the strained pipes.
Riley Ceder is a reporter at Military Times, where he covers breaking news, criminal justice, investigations, and cyber. He previously worked as an investigative practicum student at The Washington Post, where he contributed to the Abused by the Badge investigation.
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