America's New Aircraft Carrier - But the real star of the carrier is the future air wing. Kennedy will embark approximately 70 aircraft, divided into squadrons and detachments. Each air wing consists of four strike fighter squadrons totaling 44 fighters. Currently those squadrons are filled with F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet fighters.
EMALS replaces the steam catapult system traditionally used to launch aircraft and will expand the aircraft launch envelope, paving the way for innovations in manned/unmanned aircraft as well as providing the opportunity for other technological advancements in the future.
America's New Aircraft Carrier
The moment when an aircraft carrier launches a fighter jet is often described as a “shotgun” type of blast take-off. The fighter jet catapults off of the flight deck up into the sky out over the ocean, a moment consisting of instant force and thrust intended to boost acceleration for aircraft such as F/A-18 Super Hornets.
Harrison Kass is the Senior Defense Editor at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, he joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison has degrees from Lake Forest College, the University of Oregon, and New York University.
He lives in Oregon and listens to Dokken. Follow him on Twitter @harrison_kass. “All 11 of the advanced weapons elevators have been turned over to the crew. The crew is operating those elevators. They're gaining proficiency for the deployment.
Over 17,000 individual elevator cycles have been performed by the crew, include in port and at sea, with weights, in different sea states.” EMALS elements include metal decking placed over a trough on the flight deck, added to by cabling and linear induction motor sections on board the carrier, Navy engineers and senior leaders explained.
An aluminum plate runs in between stationary sections of twelve-foot long linear motors. The linear motors are engineered to help create a sequentially activated rolling magnetic field or wave able to thrust or propel aircraft forward and into flight.
The electromagnetic field acts on a large twenty-two-foot long aluminum plate. The ceremony was held at Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipyard in Virginia. Kennedy is a member of the new Ford-class of aircraft carriers, which will replace the Nimitz-class carriers currently serving with the U.S.
Navy. Kennedy will replace the Nimitz sometime in the early to mid-2020s. USS Nimitz is the oldest carrier in the Navy, having served continuously since May 1975. The Ford class, however, is built with an electromagnetic aircraft launch system, new aircraft landing system, improved nuclear reactor, and improved radar system.
The Navy claims that the Ford class will be able to generate 33 percent more aircraft sorties for less money, saving $4 billion over the life of the carrier compared to older Nimitz ships. Kris Osborn is the defense editor for the National Interest.
Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks.
He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University. By the 1990s, more advanced, nuclear-powered carriers had long since become the norm;
America was a growing obsolete. Still, the US Navy felt America had some more to contribute and she was scheduled to undergo a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP), which would push her service life out until 2010. However, budget cuts forced the America into retirement.
"It took four weeks and they ended up having to scuttle her from on board due to her not sinking," mechanical engineer Blake Horner is quoted in theaviationgeekclub.com. "She is not only far larger than WWII battleships, but she is also a lot tougher. While she does not have the heavy armor battleships of yore had, she does have a double layered hull, meaning weapons have to push through alternative layers of steel
and empty pockets to reach her internals.On top of that, her internal compartmentalization was far better than that of battleships.She is so large, there are so many more rooms that must be filled in order to make her sink than that of a battleship
." In his briefing, Capt. Metcalf announced that the first ship of its class, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) achieved initial operational capability (IOC) in December 2021. He added that IOC was achieved at that time because all advanced weapons elevators were qualified.
On Saturday, the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy presided over the christening ceremony for America's newest aircraft carrier. Former first daughter Caroline Kennedy, swinging a magnum bottle of champagne, dedicated the second aircraft carrier named after her father, a former naval officer who served during World War II.
When the America finally did slip beneath the waves, at approximately 11:30 a.m. EST, the Navy held a solemn moment of silence. America drifted downward for miles, finally coming to rest in one piece 16,860 feet below the surface, somewhere southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
The U.S. Navy's Ford-class carriers are built with an electromagnetic catapult, called the Electromagnetic Launch System (EMALS). Its multi-year development included ground tests, numerous experiments, ship integration and then several years of testing and preparation. Following years of technical maturation, which was not without some setbacks, EMALS is now operational on the USS Ford, the Navy’s first-in-class new aircraft carrier now nearing its maiden deployment.
Capt. Metcalf also indicated that %85 of John F. Kennedy (CVN 78) is completed, and the program is on track to deliver in 2024. He also mentioned that Enterprise (CVN 80) is %50 complete, the keel will be laid soon,
and will be delivered in 2028. The first steel of Doris Miller (CVN 81) was cut in August 2021, and its delivery is scheduled for 2032. The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) is a first-in-class aircraft carrier, and the first new aircraft carrier designed in over 40 years.
The Sailors who serve aboard Ford are tasked with ensuring the ship is able to execute national tasking for decades to come. The USS America (CV-66) was one of three Kitty Hawk-class carriers built in the 1960s.
The Kitty Hawk-class of carriers was seen as an incremental improvement from the preceding Forrestal-class; the Kitty Hawks were a transitional batch of carriers. The America, nicknamed "The Big A," was commissioned in 1965 and served until 1996.
Kennedy is cruising in its predecessor Ford's wake. The USS Ford encountered significant problems during construction, and still faces problems even after after commissioning. Issues with the ship's electromagnetic launch system, advanced arresting gear, and in particular its advanced weapon handling elevators caused years of delays and hundreds of millions in cost overruns.
Even today only four of the ship's eleven electromagnetically powered weapon elevators are operational. Internally, Kennedy has a very similar layout to the Ford and if the problems on Ford aren't fixed, they will probably stymie Kennedy as well.
The big carrier is not yet officially part of the U.S. Navy. Kennedy's drydock was recently filled with water, allowing the ship to float on its own. Although the ship is structurally complete, it’s basically empty inside, so the shipbuilders will spend the next few years fitting it out.
After that it's shipbuilder's trials, with contractors taking the ship to sea to test major equipment. On the ship, the below-deck EMALS equipment has been installed. This consists of a series of transformers and rectifiers designed to convert and store electrical power through a series of motor generators before bringing power to the launch motors on the catapults.
PCU Kennedy is 1,092 feet long and displaces 100,000 tons fully loaded. The ship itself is in many ways similar to U.S. carriers of the last sixty years, with the ability to launch up to four aircraft at a time, an expansive hangar to store and maintain aircraft, a nuclear reactor, and self-defense guns and missiles.
For the veterans who served on the America viewed the sinking as a solemn moment. But the previous crews could take pride in the America's exit: she had been intentionally scuttled, in an experiment to gauge how carriers respond to enemy attacks, gleaning invaluable defensive data in her sacrifice.
Electricity runs through the two sides of the motors, creating an electromagnetic wave sufficient to propel an aircraft forward. The amount of thrust needed to launch an aircraft depends upon a range of interwoven factors to include size, shape and weight of the aircraft, wind speed on the carrier deck and the speed of the aircraft carrier in the water.
EMALS is tailorable and can therefore be configured to launch larger fixed wing aircraft such as an E2D Hawkeye, fighter jet or lighter weight aircraft, such as an unmanned aircraft system. The steam catapult has been known for decades as a permanent fixture on board U.S.
Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carriers from which massive war campaigns and attack missions are launched. Its value is beyond the question, yet emerging technology in recent years now enables a smoother, more fluid, less “abrupt” or “jarring” catapult from a carrier flight deck.
Advanced Weapons Elevators on this first-of-class aircraft carrier operate using several advanced technologies including electromagnetic motors vice more labor-intensive, hydraulic systems. The advanced technology enables fewer sailors to safely move ordnance from weapons magazines to the flight deck with unparalleled speed and agility.
Navy veterans who had served on the America protested: You can't sink a ship named after the USA! The Navy disagreed. Make the ship in a museum, the veterans pleaded. The Navy stood firm. The then-vice chief of naval operations, Adm.
John B. Nathman, wrote a letter to America's veterans, explaining the decision: Kennedy will serve for 40-50 years and will see considerable changes during his lifetime. At some point, probably in the late 2020s, Kennedy will upgrade its strike fighter squadrons from four squadrons of Super Hornets to a mix of two Super Hornet and two F-35C Joint Strike Fighter squadrons.
The F-35C is the Navy's first fifth-generation fighter and the first stealthy fighter to go to sea. Around that time, the ship will also likely embark MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aerial refueling tankers, extending the operational range of the strike fighters.
At some point the ship will likely trade in Evolved Sea Sparrow and RAM anti-missile missiles for short-range defensive lasers, though the timeline for this is a lot less clear. Although it appears similar to a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, there are many features that make Ford unique.
First-in-class technology includes a new nuclear plant, the ability to generate nearly three times the amount of electrical power, innovative advanced arresting gear and the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS). In addition there's one electronic attack squadron with five EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft, one carrier airborne early warning squadron with four E-2 Hawkeye early warning aircraft, one helicopter sea combat squadron with 8 MH-60S Seahawks, one helicopter maritime strike squadron
with 11 MH-60R Seahawks, and two C-2A Greyhound carrier transports. If the contractor’s trials pass smoothly then the Navy will finally commission the carrier in the early 2020s. The ship is known for now as Pre-Commissioning Unit Kennedy, taking the United States Ship title only after commissioning.
The Navy next holds its own trials, and barring any problems Kennedy will go on its first patrol shortly thereafter. The three decades for which the America served were relatively action-packed; the America loitered nearby, or participated directly, in several conflicts, including the Six-Day War, the Vietnam War, Operation El Dorado Canyon, and Operation Desert Storm.
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