100K-ton, 1,100-foot-long Supercarrier Ready To Join The Fleet

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USS Gerald R Ford, the most expensive warship ever built, is expected to join U.S.Navy by September.

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A Navy official said that the $12.9 billion aircraft carrier is expected to join U.S. Navy in September.

Highlights:

  • The construction of the vessel started in 2009, and as of March it is 97% complete.
  • The carrier is expected to begin sea trials in July and be delivered to the Navy by Newport News Shipbuilding two months later.
  • The ship is named after the 38th president, who died in 2006, He served aboard the USS Monterey during World War II and was discharged from the Navy as a lieutenant commander.
  • The next carrier in the Ford class, the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79), is scheduled to be launched in 2020.

Features:

  • The aircraft carrier is 1,092 feet long.
  • It weighs around 100,000 tons.
  • It is powered by two nuclear reactors.
  • The cost incurred to build the vessel is nearly $13 million.
  • It’s greater efficiency allows 25% more flight missions per day.
  • The vessel has
    • 10 million feet of electrical wires,
    • 4 million feet of fibre optic cable
  • It has the capacity to carry 4,539 navy crew, air wing personnel and staff.
  • It is build with the capacity to hold more than 75 aircraft.
  • The vessel has a speed of upto 30+ knots.

Sean J. Stackley, the Navy’s assistant secretary for acquisitions, gave the timetable for the 100,000-ton, 1,100-foot-long supercarrier in testimony prepared for the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.  The timetable for the Navy’s biggest warships came as Stackley gave lawmakers the Navy’s budget request for the next five years.  The service wants to spend $81.3 billion over that period to build 38 warships, he said.

The first replacement for the aging Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, nine Virginia-class attack submarines, 10 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and smaller numbers of other surface ships are also included in the request.

Stackley’s testimony reveals that the goal of the building plan is to have a Navy battle force of 308 ships by 2021.

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Source: CNN