USS Gerald R. Ford

[asianobserve]

America Christens $13billion Aircraft Carrier USS Gerald R. Ford Capable of Launching 220 Airstrikes a Day
By Daily Mail Reporter, Ryan Gorman and AP Reporter
9 November 2013

The US Navy today christened the USS Gerald Ford, costliest and most deadly aircraft carrier ever built.

The $13billion warship is the first in the Navy's newest generation of aircraft carriers. It was launched in a grand ceremony Saturday from the Newport News, VA., naval yard.

The Ford is expected to stay commissioned for five decades and will enter the fleet in 2016.

I christen thee, the USS Gerald Ford: Susan Ford Bales, daughter of former President Gerald R. Ford, right, christens the USS Gerald R. Ford

Hooyah!: The USS Gerald Ford has been christened and is ready to move out

The giant 1,106-foot USS Gerald R. Ford is be able to launch 220 airstrikes per day from its two runways, hold 4,000 sailors and marines while appearing virtually invisible to enemy radar.

'She is truly a technological marvel,' Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said at the ceremony 'She will carry unmanned aircraft, joint strike fighters, and she will deploy lasers.'

The staggering number of airstrikes, about one every six minutes, is capable because the ship's deck uses electromagnetic force to propel the jets forward, according to WTKR. Pressurized steam is used in older ships.

Electromagnetic force is used to propel roller coasters, the station noted.

The gear used to snag jets as they land will be software controlled, a significant bump from the systems currently used.

Pomp and circumstance: It's not everyday the most expensive aircraft carrier ever built is launched

All hands on deck: An honor guard of boy scouts from the local area and Michigan welcome visitors for the christening of the USS Gerald R. Ford

Soon to be set free: The $13billion ship will soon set sail

President Ford's daughter Susan Bales Ford spoke shortly before smashing a champagne bottle on the ship's bow.

'Dad, their message fills this shipyard,' she said. 'You kept your promise. You healed the nation. You gave the American people a president that was a shining beacon of integrity at the helm.'

'And as demonstrated by Capt. (John) Meier and by the crew and by this mighty carrier, the American people are forever grateful to you. And Dad, I'll always be proud,' she added.

Other speakers honoring Mr Ford included former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

The Ford - with a new nuclear power plant, electromagnetic catapults and an enhanced 5-acre flight deck - will leave dry dock and head to a pier at Newport News Shipbuilding next week.

The Navy says construction on the ship is about 70 percent complete and will finish up in 2015. It will then undergo a series of sea trials before it is commissioned and becomes operational.

The Navy also plans to buy another three such carriers, at a cost of $43 billion, to complete its fleet.

But the project to build the most advanced aircraft carrier every made has come at a high price, with costs overrunning to the tune of nearly $3billion and major delays.

Beci Brenton, spokesman for Huntington Ingalls Industries, the maker of the ship, told FoxNews.com: 'The structure has been rearranged to accommodate new technology and meet all of the Navy's operational requirements.

(continued below)

 

[asianobserve]

Re: The super ship fit for a superpower

From head to toe: The USS Gerald Ford is decked out in patriotic colors

Big day: A massive crowd is on-hand to help dedicate the equally gigantic ship

Finishing touches: Workers tend to a few last minute details before the ceremony begins

The $13billion USS Gerald R. Ford will be one of the most fearsome weapons in the Pentagon's arsenal

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/09/30/article-2439212-1867970D00000578-790_634x422.jpg
Superpower: The new generation of aircraft carriers incorporates a host of top secret technology which is designed to secure dominance of any battlefield

Deadly: USS Gerald R. Ford will hold 4,000 sailors and marines and is designed to be virtually invisible to enemy radar

The ship's structure and exterior are now 100 per cent complete, Brenton said. But internal connections and features inside the ship are still being added.

The ship began construction in Newport News, Virginia, in 2007, but is unlikely to enter sea trials until 2016.

The carrier would be fully capable by February 2019, according to a critical watchdog report.

Delays ranging from between two and a half and four and a half years in testing three of the ship's most important new advances: its dual band radar, arresting gear and the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System that will catapult jets off the carrier have become serious issues.

(Continued below)

 

[asianobserve]

Re: The super ship fit for a superpower

Power: The USS Gerald R. Ford is the new generation of aircraft carriers capable of launching 220 airstrikes a day

Power: The USS Gerald R. Ford is the new generation of aircraft carriers capable of launching 220 airstrikes a day

Rising costs: The USS Gerald R. Ford is expected to cost taxpayers more than £13billion when it is finally completed

And the spiralling costs come at a time when the Navy is seaching for ways to plug a $14 billion cut in the upcoming fiscal year as a result of the automatic federal budget cuts known as sequestration.

The state-of-the-art carrier has provoked strong criticism from some quarters, including the government's own watchdogs.

In a report earlier this month the Government Accountability Office wrote: 'Key ship systems face reliability shortfalls that the Navy does not expect to resolve until many years after [Ford] commissioning, which will limit the ship's mission effectiveness during initial deployments and likely increase costs to the government.'

It added: 'The Navy faces technical, design, and construction challenges to completing Gerald R. Ford that have led to significant cost increases.'

National security experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Brookings Institution, have also called into question the value of the aircraft in future conflicts.

'I'm not persuaded they're worth twice what the old carriers cost,' Michael O'Hanlon, of Brookings, told FoxNews.com.

Read more: USS Gerald Ford: America chistens $13bn super aircraft carrier | Mail Online
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[asianobserve]

 

[Pandora]

Hats off to US for this beautiful ship.Truly a class apart.

 

[pmaitra]

@asianobserve, thanks for sharing. I thought that this ship was too big and too important to linger inside of another thread. So, this gets a new thread of its own. Here, we will discuss, and admire this great ship that is soon becoming a reality.

 

[asianobserve]

Looking at its flight deck it really looks like an airport with the control tower set far back.

 

[lookieloo]

Here, we will discuss, and admire this great ship that is soon becoming a reality.

Indeed, I am quite pleased with the massive increase in electrical-capacity and the reduction in crew-size. However, my excitement is tempered by realism... With so many new technologies to introduce, I anticipate a long and costly series of teething problems in the years ahead. Not that I'm crying about it; that's just the way things are with these kind of projects.

 

[TrueSpirit1]

Any other AC in any Navy using EMALS, yet ?

The way recent developments are shaping up the US Navy, it would continue to be impossibly hard for anyone to even contemplate challenging the USN in the oceans or even, in littoral waters. The efficiency with which this AC would supposedly be put into full-fledged service (within 13 years) is an example worth emulating (though, not quite unusual for US shipbuilding industry).

US's engineering capabilities as well as famed project-management skills continues to be ground-breaking & simple, unparalleled. Being an irresistible magnet for all the world's talent does have its advantages.

 

[asianobserve]

 

[cobra commando]

Navy to Test Electromagnetic
Catapult on Carrier

The Navy is preparing to launch the first ship-board tests of a new Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System designed to replace steam catapults and propel fighter jets and other aircraft off the deck of an aircraft carrier and into the sky over the ocean, service officials said. The EMALS system, which uses an electromagnetic field to propel aircraft instead of the currently used steam catapult, is slated for the new Ford-class aircraft carriers. The first EMALS system has been under construction for several years aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), the first in class of the new carriers expected to deliver to the Navy in 2016, Navy officials said. This summer, the Navy will start incremental testing on board the USS Ford wherein "dead loads" placed on weighted sleds are catapulted by the EMALS system into the river, said Capt. Jim Donnelly, program manager for aircraft launch and recovery equipment. "As things get connected they will increase the number of tests. The first aircraft launch will be after the ship gets to sea," Donnelly said. Ship integration and testing for the EMALS technology will mark a substantial milestone in a program which, until now, has largely been conducting land- based flight tests at a Navy facility in Lakehurst, N.J. "We've conducted 452 aircraft launches and just finished up our second phase of aircraft compatibility testing," Donnelly explained. The ground-based EMALS catapult tests have launched EA-18G Growlers, F/A-18 Super Hornets, C-2 Greyhound planes and E2D Advanced Hawkeyes, among others. In fact, EMALS even launched an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at Lakehurst, Donnelly added.


Read more here:
http://defensetech.org/2014/05/13/navy-to-test-electromagnetic-catapult-on-carrier/#more-22923

 

[asianobserve]

 

[cobra commando]

U.S. Navy, General Atomics and HII started EMALS tests onboard USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78)

 

[jouni]

U.S. Navy, General Atomics and HII started EMALS tests onboard USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78)

The first pic looks a like those starships of empire in the Star Wars. Great job from designers

 

[cobra commando]

EMALS dead load testing begins aboard PCU Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78)
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (June 5, 2015) U.S. Navy Sailors, civilian employees and contractors observed a "dead-load" test of the new electromagnetic aircraft launching system (EMALS) aboard Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). The weighted sled was launched into the James River where it was recovered for additional test launches.

 

[cobra commando]

EMALS dead load testing begins aboard PCU Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78)
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (June 5, 2015) U.S. Navy Sailors, civilian employees and contractors observed a "dead-load" test of the new electromagnetic aircraft launching system (EMALS) aboard Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). The weighted sled was launched into the James River where it was recovered for additional test launches.

 

[asianobserve]

USS Gerald Ford is 98% Complete and on Track for September Delivery

Key Points

• Gerald R Ford is 98% complete and is expected to deliver in late September
• The final 2% of work consists of remaining tests on the new carrier

The lead ship of the US Navy's (USN's) new class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers is on track for sea trials and handover in the final quarter of fiscal year 2016, a programme official said on 16 May.

The future USS Gerald R Ford (CVN 78) is 98% complete at Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding division in Virginia, Captain Chris Meyer, programme manager of the CVN 78 class, said during a briefing at the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space symposium in National Harbor, Maryland.

http://www.janes.com/article/60377/navy-league-2016-us-navy-s-cvn-78-on-track-for-september-delivery

 

[Tactical Frog]

Simply mesmerizing ... first arrested landing at sea.

 

[asianobserve]

Even more amazing is the catapult launch in USS Gerald Ford, without the steam coming out from the catapult:

 

[asianobserve]

Tour inside USS Gerald Ford: