The head of the new aircraft carrier project CVN-78 “Gerald R. Ford”, built by order of the United States Navy, first went to sea trials, reports the Navy Times. As the newspaper notes, the ship date, the customer had to move more than three years due to the large number of new equipment, debugging which delays the construction.
As notes the edition, on Board the ship there are many workers, engineers and employees of the shipyard Newport News Shipbuilding, as well as specialists in the management of nuclear power plants, management of marine systems and several other departments of the U.S. Navy. They provide tests of the ship and crew training.
The contract for the construction of an aircraft carrier cost $ 12.9 billion (excluding the wing) was signed in may 2004, metal cutting began in August 2005, and the official groundbreaking ceremony was held on 13 November 2009. In October 2013, the ship was first floated at dock, the official ceremony of launching took place on 9 November of the same year. The godmother of the new aircraft carrier was Susan Ford, the daughter of the 38th U.S. President Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., after whom is named an aircraft carrier.
The original plans envisioned the transfer of the ship to the Navy in 2014, however, stick to the timetable failed. He is expected to be handed over to the Navy next year and will last at least 50 years. In the U.S. Navy, Ford will replace the output from the first line in 2012 and officially decommissioned in February 2017 the world’s first nuclear aircraft carrier “enterprise”, which was transferred to the U.S. Navy in November 1961. The core combat strength of aircraft carrier forces of the U.S. Navy currently account for 10 ships of the type “Nimitz”, transferred to the Navy from may 1975 to January 2009.
Displacement of the Ford is over 100 thousand tons. It differs from its predecessors, among other things, the availability of improved arresting gear, electromagnetic catapults, new radar, power plant, redesigned the superstructure, hull and flight deck configuration. The maximum size of the wing can reach 90 aircraft. It is expected that the ship will carry as existing aircraft such as the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, electronic warfare aircraft EA-18G Growler, the “flying radars” E-2 Advanced Hawkeye and Hawkeye, helicopters SH-60, and new generation cars, including the F-35C and unmanned aircraft X-47B.