The first of class of any warship is also a prototype and many of its systems can only be fully tested when installed on the ship or at sea. The new ship is the culmination of a twenty-year project, and although formally commissioned in July 2017, she did not achieve initial operating capability until December 2021. The price tag for the vessel (not including aircraft) has risen to around $13.3bn with another $5bn spent on supporting research and development. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to go for such a cutting-edge option came with enormous technical and financial risk which was perhaps underestimated at the time. The decisions made by President George W. 23 separate systems incorporating new technologies have been brought together to create a vessel that will ensure the US Navy maintains its already vast lead in carrier development over any of its global competitors. Here we report from onboard about her first operational deployment and now this vessel represents a step change in carrier aviation.Īlthough externally similar, the Ford-class aircraft carriers are not just an iterative development of the proceeding Nimitz class but a transformational design.
The 100,000-ton ship is the largest, most expensive and arguably the most powerful warship ever built. Ford arrived in UK waters for her first visit to Europe. On 14th November the US Navy’s new aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R.
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