Gerald R. Ford-class

The world's largest warship — a nuclear-powered supercarrier with electromagnetic catapults, built to sustain a ~75-aircraft air wing and project power globally, and the centerpiece of the US Navy's 11-carrier fleet.

Overview

The Gerald R. Ford-class is the United States Navy's newest class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, succeeding the Nimitz-class as the backbone of American carrier strike group operations. The lead ship, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), was commissioned in 2017 and represents the first new US carrier design in over four decades. With a full-load displacement exceeding 100,000 tonnes, electromagnetic catapults in place of steam, and a redesigned flight deck optimized for higher sortie-generation rates, the class is built to sustain air operations at a tempo no other warship can match. According to The Defense Post, the Ford-class introduces 23 new or upgraded systems compared to the Nimitz-class, ranging from its A1B nuclear reactors to its dual-band radar suite.

Development

The Ford-class originated in the US Navy's CVN-21 program, a future-carrier effort launched in the 1990s after post-Cold War analysis concluded that incremental Nimitz upgrades would not deliver the leap in sortie-generation capability, survivability, and reduced manning the Navy required. Naval Technology notes that the design phase formally began in 2000, with construction of the lead ship commencing at Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding yard in 2009. The vessel was christened in 2013 and commissioned on 22 July 2017, as documented by Britannica. The class absorbed significant research-and-development costs — the lead ship alone cost approximately $13 billion including R&D, according to The Defense Post — driven largely by the new electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS), advanced arresting gear (AAG), and the Bechtel A1B nuclear reactor plant. Follow-on hulls are CVN-79 John F. Kennedy, CVN-80 Enterprise, and CVN-81 Doris Miller; the Navy is conducting a design review ahead of future contract awards, as reported by USNI News.

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