USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78): America's Best Aircraft Carrier

USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78): America's Best Aircraft Carrier

USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is the lead ship of her class of United States Navy aircraft carriers. The ship is named after the 38th President of the United States, Gerald Ford, whose World War II naval service included combat duty aboard the light aircraft carrier Monterey in the Pacific Theater.

Construction began on 11 August 2005, when Northrop Grumman held a ceremonial steel cut for a 15-ton plate that forms part of a side shell unit of the carrier. The keel of Gerald R. Ford was laid down on 13 November 2009. She was christened on 9 November 2013. Gerald R. Ford entered the fleet replacing the decommissioned USS Enterprise (CVN-65), which ended her 51 years of active service in December 2012. Originally scheduled for delivery in 2015, Gerald R. Ford was delivered to the Navy on 31 May 2017 and formally commissioned by President Donald Trump on 22 July 2017. She is expected to leave on her first deployment around 2022. As of 2017, she is the world's largest aircraft carrier, and the largest warship ever constructed in terms of displacement.

Design Features. Carriers of the Gerald R. Ford class will have:
1. Advanced arresting gear.
2. Automation, allowing a crew of several hundred fewer than the Nimitz-class carrier.
3. The updated RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow missile.
4. An AN/SPY-3 X Band multifunction radar and an AN/SPY-4 S Band volume search radar. Designated together as Dual Band Radar (DBR), initially developed for the Zumwalt-class destroyers.
4. An Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) in place of traditional steam catapults for launching aircraft.
5. A new nuclear reactor design (the A1B reactor) for greater power generation.
Stealth features to reduce radar cross-section.
6. The ability to carry up to 90 aircraft, including the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Boeing EA-18G Growler, Grumman C-2 Greyhound, Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye, Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II, Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopters, and unmanned combat aerial vehicles.

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