In 2009, the U.S. Navy began construction of the first new type of aircraft carrier in nearly thirty-five years. The Navy refers to its newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, as “4.5 acres of sovereign U.S. territory. Gerald R. Ford is a class of supercarriers being built to replace some of the United States Navy’s existing Nimitz-class carriers.
In recent years, a number of countries, China, Russia, and Iran, have accelerated investments in anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities such as advanced air defense systems, anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles, submarines, and aircraft carriers. Long-range precision guided anti-ship missiles are increasingly able to target and destroy aircraft carriers at distances as far as 1,000-miles off shore. Chinese-built DF-21D missile is referred to as a “carrier-killer” is able to destroy targets more than 900 miles off shore. These technologies and weapons systems allow enemies to attack carriers at increasingly longer distances make the platforms more vulnerable and degraded power projection dominance in a potential future combat environment.
The USS Gerald R. Ford is the first is a series of new Ford-class carriers designed with a host of emerging technologies to address anticipated future threats and bring the power-projecting platform into the next century. The Ford class carriers are engineered with greater high-tech sensors and additional ship defensive technologies including missile interceptors and directed energy weapons, greater speed and maneuverability to avoid enemy fire and configurations which allow for more drones to launch from the deck of the ship. At the same time, the design is flexible enough to be adapted with new technologies for the future threats.
Ford’s entry into active service will once again raise the Navy’s carrier force to eleven ships. The Navy’s carrier fleet is unique in having a congressionally mandated minimum force level: U.S. Code § 5062 states, “the naval combat forces of the Navy shall include not less than 11 operational aircraft carriers.” For, now the Navy is operating with a waiver.
However, according to Capt. Brent Gaut, Ford’s executive officer, the next steps for the ship and her crew after commissioning will be to move into the test and evaluation phase. The ship is expected to set sail for a 10 to 12-day shakedown period where the crew will begin to test all of Ford’s systems including the EMALS and AAG. If all goes well, the ship will be certified to launch and recover aircraft. McCormack said. If all goes well, the ship should be operational by 2020. If the current schedule holds, Ford should be able to work up with an air wing and deploy in 2021 or 2022.
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