The Ship Model Forum

Carrier Ford Has Serious Power Problem
By: Christopher P. Cavas, September 18, 2016
WASHINGTON – For over a year, the US Navy and its shipbuilders have been anxious to get the new aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) to sea and begin engineering trials of the first-of-class design. A number of publicly-announced target dates have come and gone, but the ship is still firmly moored at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia.

Now, however, a key factor in preventing the ship from casting off lines and getting underway is coming into view. A serious voltage regulator problem on the carrier’s four main turbine generators (MTGs) has prevented engineers from running the motors up to full power, and only now has the problem been identified and a fix decided upon.

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I'm wondering if they figured out how to shield her from the effects of an EM pulse weapon?

Carrier Ford Sails This Week; Future Destroyer Proposals In 2020
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.

NATIONAL HARBOR: The long-delayed supercarrier Gerald Ford should set sail for builders’ trials this week, the head of Naval Sea Systems Command said today. If those builders’ trials and subsequent Navy acceptance trials go well, Vice Adm. Thomas Moore told reporters at the Sea-Air-Space conference here, “I think we’ll get the ship delivered in the…

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I think she is rather an attractive ship!

First of Its Class, America's Newest Aircraft Carrier Is Underway at Sea

The Gerald Ford is equipped with a number of new technologies

By Kyle Mizokami
Apr 10, 2017

The aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, the U.S. Navy's latest supercarrier, is finally at sea undergoing testing. The carrier is the most expensive weapons system ever purchased and has faced a two year delay. The ship is on track for commissioning sometime later this month or early May.

Named after former president and naval aviator Gerald R. Ford, the carrier is 1,092 feet long and displaces more than 100,000 tons fully loaded. It will have a crew of 4,660—six hundred less than the previous Nimitz class, thanks to increased efficiency and automation—and carry 75 combat aircraft. In accordance with Navy tradition, the ship is currently known as PCU Gerald Ford, or "Pre-Commissioning Unit" until it is officially accepted into the fleet, whereupon it will adopt the USS prefix. Here's a video of Ford departing the shipyard.

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You know the catapult is quite important. So I said what is this? Sir, this is our digital catapult system. He said well, we’re going to this because we wanted to keep up with modern [technology]. I said you don’t use steam anymore for catapult? No sir. I said, “Ah, how is it working?” “Sir, not good. Not good. Doesn’t have the power. You know the steam is just brutal. You see that sucker going and steam’s going all over the place, there’s planes thrown in the air.”

It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out. And I said–and now they want to buy more aircraft carriers. I said what system are you going to be–”Sir, we’re staying with digital.” I said no you’re not. You going to goddamned steam, the digital costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good.

The future USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) successfully completed acceptance trials conducted by the U.S. Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) in the Atlantic Ocean May 24-26 and is in final preparations for delivery. Acceptance trials are primarily aimed at demonstrating to INSURV the ability of the ship's crew to conduct operations at sea, and that the ship is constructed in accordance with contract specifications.

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Prior to the underway period, INSURV conducted a rigorous set of pierside trials, including more than 200 in-port demonstrations and inspections. The three-day at-sea portion of acceptance trials also included more than 500 INSURV demonstrations and inspections of the ship's hull, mechanical and electrical systems.

The Navy's Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair is responsible for ensuring the ship's readiness for acceptance trials and presenting the ship to INSURV. The ship's crew is responsible for operating the ship and conducting tests and demonstrations. INSURV oversees and witnesses the execution of the acceptance trials schedule.

The $13 Billion Aircraft Carrier That Has Trouble With Planes
by Anthony Capaccio
June 15, 2017, 12:01 AM EDT

The newest and costliest U.S. aircraft carrier, praised by President Donald Trump and delivered to the Navy on May 31 with fanfare, has been dogged by trouble with fundamentals: launching jets from its deck and catching them when they land.

Now, it turns out that the system used to capture jets landing on the USS Gerald R. Ford ballooned in cost, tripling to $961 million from $301 million, according to Navy documents obtained by Bloomberg News.

While the Navy says the landing system has been fixed, the next-generation carrier built by Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. still hasn’t been cleared to launch F/A-18 jets carrying a full complement of fuel tanks under their wings, a handicap that could limit their effectiveness in combat.

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Trump landed on the flight deck in Marine One and was greeted by Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Acting Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, and USS Gerald R. Ford Commanding Officer Capt. Rick McCormack. Over 10,000 friends and family members attended the event, watching the festivities from the hangar bay, the pier and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69).

Distinguished members of the party offered remarks to honor the occasion.

Aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy is now 50 percent structurally complete
Posted 11:26 am, June 23, 2017, by Becca Mitchell

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - The aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) is now 50 percent structurally complete, Huntington Ingalls Industries has announced.

The ship is currently under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding.

The 50 percent milestone was reached as the 70-foot lower stern was lifted into place on Thursday.

“This is a significant milestone in the ship’s construction schedule,” said Mike Shawcross, Newport News’ vice president, John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) and Enterprise (CVN 80) aircraft carrier construction. “We are halfway through lifting the units onto the ship, and many of the units are larger and nearly all are more complete than the CVN 78 lifts were. This is one of many lessons learned from the construction of the lead ship that are helping to reduce construction costs and improve efficiencies on Kennedy.”
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New supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford completes first arrested landing and launch
By
George Allison -
July 31, 2017

The US Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford launched and recovered her first fixed-wing aircraft off the coast of Virginia.

According to a press release, the first arrested landing, or “trap”, occurred at 3:10 PM (EST) and the first catapult launch happened at 4:37 PM (EST).

“Lt. Cmdr. Jamie Struck of Tallmedge, Ohio piloted the F/A-18F Superhornet from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 based at Patuxent River, Maryland.

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Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) cut a 35-ton steel plate at its Newport News Shipbuilding division to kick off advance construction of the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN 80). The steel plate will become part of the foundation of Enterprise, the third Gerald R. Ford-class carrier, and the ninth U.S. Navy ship to bear the legendary name.

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CVN 80 will be the third Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier. Designed to replace Nimitz-class carriers, the Ford class features a new nuclear power plant, a redesigned island, electromagnetic catapults, improved weapons movement, an enhanced flight deck capable of increased aircraft sortie rates, and growth margin for future technologies. Each Ford-class ship will operate with a smaller crew than a Nimitz-class carrier and will provide $4 billion in total ownership cost savings for the Navy. Aircraft carriers provide sovereign, mobile U.S. territory and are a visible symbol of U.S. power. They are the centerpiece of our nation’s security strategy and support and protect the global economy through the protection of sea lanes around the world.