It's already paying off. Maintenance costs on systems that don't work are minimal.
Then go ski jump a half loaded plane off a second rate carrier. Steam cats made our modern fleet air arm what it is, but the rework cycle, day to day maintenance, and survivability are all better with EMALS which has already worked. Four steam cats at different parts of the ship. You make the steam below the waterline, you use it seventy feet above. And oh yeah, dump it in a cylinder a hundred feet long that has a hole down the entire length of it. Every time we came out of a shipyard the shacks stayed over the cat tracks pretty much until the week before we went to sea. They are never not being worked on. And I have yet to live through a shipyard period that happened on time, budget, or accomplished half of what was planned. It's only news when someone has an axe to grind.
Best one yet, my ship was extensively modified to support V-22. It made one deployment with them and then decommissioned. I wish there was a better way to do shipyards but they are all moneypits.
Off the wall, I lived in front of Huntington Ingalls for ten years. I walked to work for a year while my ship was in drydock. I have lived on the ship in two other shipyards. I would rather sail in circles around Antarctica for a year without stopping than ever set foot in another yard.