Ford Class Super Aircraft Carriers - Bigger Faster Stronger
aircraft carriers are the mighty Capital ships of modern navies and the largest of these behemoths are called super carriers they are used by the world's Maritime powers to command the sea and to project power far away from their own Shores they are the centerpiece of carrier strike groups which in the U.S Navy includes one Cruiser multiple destroyers a Combat Supply ship and supported by attack submarines the Giroud R Ford class is the U.S Navy's upcoming class of nuclear-powered supercarriers and they will replace the tin current nimitz-class carriers on a one-for-one basis the fort incorporates many new technologies including electromagnetic aircraft catapults Advanced arresting gears new nuclear reactors a geo-band radar and improved automation we will cover each of these in great detail throughout the video the numbers class carriers had served the U.S Navy well they have served since
1975 having gone through several major updates however they have a lifespan of about 50 years and will be gradually decommissioned starting from the leadership the USS Nimitz in 2025. the Nimitz displaces around 100 000 tons fully loaded can travel in excess of 30 knots and has a complement of 5 000 Personnel including the air crew the problem is that the Nimitz ability to receive future technology is becoming limited the biggest problem include limited electrical power generation which was sufficient to receive less energy intensive technology in the past but are insufficient to accommodate upcoming more power-hungry systems new Hardware has also added to the weights of the Nimitz class eroding the ship's stability one of the main goals of the fourth class is to make it easy to receive new upgrades without affecting the performance of existing systems the U.S naval Architects considered several possible Design Concepts for the Fort the first design involved small incremental improvements to the Nimitz class but the limits as we discussed has already experienced enough problems as it's aged such that small modifications did not feel sufficient to meet requirements the second concept was a smaller stovo carrier which of course had the advantage of low cost stavo stands for shorts takeoff and vertical Landing where they use the Harrier fighter in the ef-35 Bravo lightning 2 aircraft however the Stovall was discarded because it was Felts that the carrier Fighters would not have enough range and payload to fulfill Mission requirements the third design was entirely outside the box it was a so-called stealth aircraft carrier this was basically as large as a super carrier with four aircraft catapults to achieve stealth requirements the size of the ship were enclosed with a sloped barrier and it had a stealthy Island and Tumble home Hull the non-stealthy planes for example the fa-18s were launched behind the barrier to avoid detection however the stealth carrier was too ambitious and was felt to be too unrealistic to be a real option the U.S Navy also considered a super large super carrier but the concept was quickly abandoned when they realized that no Dry Dock in the United States was large enough to build a ship to actually go ahead with the design they will have to build it in South Korea or China which is a non-starter the final chosen design was similar in displacements and dimensions to the limits but with a heavy redesign of the interior for more efficient use of space and Personnel movement this was permitted by an in turn permitting the incorporation of 21st century technology construction of the first vessel the USCS Gerald R Ford designated CVN 78 officially began in August 2005 and only really started in 2007. she was built at a newport's News
shipyard in the state of Virginia the only place in the United States that can build nuclear-powered aircraft carriers throughout's developments the unit's cost of the first vessel was revised up over time reflecting difficulties in implementing new technologies and unforeseen shortcomings that had to be fixed the latest estimates places the unit's cost of the first vessel as well over 13 billion dollars in 2018 and even more if adjusted for inflation the Gerald R Ford was commissioned in July 2017 but only reached initial operating capability in September 2022 the second ship the John F Kennedy is expected to enter service in 2024 the third ship the USCS Enterprise the ninth ship in the U.S Navy to bear this name is under construction laid down in 2022 expecting to Commission in 2028 the construction schedule clearly expects a big increase in the speed of construction as the lessons from building the fort is digested the U.S Navy plans to to build a total of 10 Ford class super carriers over the next 35 years or so the food displaces around 100 000 tons as full load with a length of 337 meters and a flight deck beam of 78 meters slightly larger than the 333 meter length of the numbers the fort has a complement of 45 and 500 Personnel including ear crew or around 500 less people than the Nimitz the reduction in Personnel is made possible by systems that reduces crew workload especially in terms of Maintenance requirements many of the Ford's Technologies do not need as many man hours to Service as their earlier versions the electromagnetic aircraft catapults is one example the Ford also benefits from greater automation than the Nimitz and consolidation are previously multiple systems into smaller numbers of systems like The Radars for example so this helps to reduce lifetime operating cost by the way if you enjoyed our video so far please press the like button the heart of a nuclear aircraft carrier is obviously the nuclear reactor that provides the required power the fort has two big toe aib nuclear reactors in addition to powering the four propeller shafts each one of these can produce 300 megawatts of electricity triple the amounts produced by the a4w reactors on the Nimitz class compared to the numerous reactor the Ford's reactor has a simpler design despite being more powerful with fewer moving Parts like valves pumps and piping which reduces maintenance cost only half of the Ford's electricity generation capacity is used by the currently planned systems with the remaining 50 available for future Technologies like direct energy weapons for example the extra electricity generation is one factor future proofing the thought in preparation for receiving new technologies that are usually more energy intensive 20 30 or even 40 years from now remediating one critical shortcoming of its predecessor the Nimitz class so what are some of the technological improvements on the Ford the Ford has 11 high-capacity weapons elevators scattered around the flight deck they are too small to carry aircraft but they carry ordinances from the storage magazine deep inside the bell of the ship directly to the flight deck this may seem like a simple system but the benefits can be easily underestimated during World War II in 1945 the U.S carrier the USS Franklin
was conducting sorties against the Japanese Mainland when a single Japanese bomber landed two bombs on the carrier the bombs penetrated the lightly armored flight dick causing fires and explosions in the ship's Hangar dick the hangar contained planes some of which were armed with rockets and these ordinances were set off by the heat the Rockets ricocheted throughout the hangar causing widespread destruction and loss of life thanks to Excellence damage control and a fair amounts of luck the Franklin survived the main purpose of the weapons elevators on the fort is to prevent scenarios like this from happening again by allowing planes to be armed on the flight deck rather than in the hangar by transporting ordinances vertically the weapons elevators also reduce the necessary horizontal movements throughout the ship making traffic within the ship more efficient and interfering less with aircraft movements from the hangar the Nimitz does not even have this system and ordinances on the Nimitz are usually transported onto the flight deck from the hangar via the aircraft elevator so the weapons elevator of the fort is a key Innovation that should enhance survivability let's move on to the electromagnetic aircraft launch system abbreviated as Emos a new type of aircraft catapults that assists 5 writers in the coming Airborne aircraft catapults provides a huge advantage over carriers without catapults in terms of the maximum takeoff weights the weapons payload the fuel capacity and the range of conditions the carrier Fighters can launch the Emos on the fort is an upgrade from the previous model of steam catapults used by U.S Navy carriers compared to steam catapults the electromagnetic catapults have several advantages firstly Emos places far less strain on the aircraft airframes whereas steam catapults puts all the energy into the airframe basically at the very beginning Emos apply consistent Force throughout the launch leading to reduced wear and tear on the aircraft secondly Emos can launch heavier aircraft than what can be launched by steam catapults potentially allowing in the future heavier types of Airborne early warning systems or even bombers at the Elder extreme the electromagnetic catapults can launch planes that are much lighter than what is possible with steam because steam catapults cannot launch planes that are two lights without excessively straining the airframe but Emos can launch very light aircraft for example small uavs Emos has a battery that can store large amounts of energy potentially allowing for planes to be launched in quick succession if needed in theory Emos should be able to generate more sorties and promoting a higher surge capacity than steam steam catapults is high maintenance because the usage of steam inevitably results in corrosion of metal mini methods are used to deal with the problem and yet corrosion occurs in contrast the maintenance for Emos is far simpler more automated and lists Manpower intensive which means lower operational cost over time carriers not only allow fixed-wing aircraft to take off but also make Landings possible one key system for doing so at least for the super carriers is the landing arrester gear the fort has the advanced the resting gear or AAG which replaces the hydraulic arresting gear in use on the previous nimitz-class carriers the hydraulic system requires a lot of Maintenance while the AAG requires far less and has systems in place to flag issues allowing for more effective maintenance critically nimitz-class hydraulic arresting gear has problem with lightweight aircraft for example combat drones and uavs because they are not heavy enough when they touch down to interact safely with the wire so the hydraulic arrestor could easily be a stationary barrier that can severely damage light aircraft in contrast the AAG would allow lights planes like combat drones to land safely the presence of both the advanced arresting gear and Emos is what allows the fort to operate unmanned Vehicles like combat drones and uavs in the future the electromagnetic catapults was successfully tested at Sea on the fort in July 2017 but problems persist with its reliability according to the U.S Department of Defense the Ford's catapults will shoot an average of 181 aircraft launch Cycles between each operational failure this represents a far higher rate of failure than the requirements which is 4166 Launches on average between failed launchers Emos often broke down and was not reliable similarly the AAG Advanced a resting gear also suffered reliability issues the AAG saw 10 failures during its first 747 sorties well below acceptable levels of reliability the fort spends much of the first five years after commissioning to fix these problems the system's reliability has improved dramatically by the middle of 2022 with the fort having achieved 10 000 successful catapults launchers and arrested Landings according to the U.S Navy both the Emos
and AAG appear to be working fine by now the fort has the standard complement of aircraft for U.S Navy Super carriers during wartime the Ford will be able to field well over 100 aircraft although officially she is designed to house a maximum of only 90. as of 2023 Carrier Air Wing 8 is attached the fort has the Boeing fa-18 e and if super Hornets with the E being the standard single seats fighter and the if a two-seat's variant it is a non-stealthy 4.5 generation
fighter designed for multi-role usage the lack of stealth requirements mean the super Hornets can carry more ordinances across the weapon hardpoints compared to a f-35c using only the internal weapon base due to a need to maintain stealth the Ford also has a squadron of The ea18g Growler the electronic warfare aircraft a special version of the two seats efa-18 if she also has a carrier Airborne command and control Squadron equipped with the Northrop Grumman e2d Hawkeye a force multiplier for the combat aircraft there are two squadrons of the esh-60 Seahawk helicopters with different types outfitted for difference missions including anti-submarine Warfare surface strike and mine sweeping missions however the Gerald R Ford is not fitted to operate the new ef-35c stealth Fighters the ef-35c deployments requires certain modifications including hardening the geodes blast deflectors the Ford is scheduled to receive modifications for integration of the ef-35c and the fiscal year 2025 however the second ship of the Ford class the Journey of Kennedy the cben 79 is expected to deploy the ef-35c immediately after commissioning ef-35c in my opinion is simply bitter at everything compared to the super Hornets although some people would argue that the super Hornets may be better suited for attacking surface targets anyway the f-35c is clearly far superior at ear to ear combat due to its stealth capability greater situational awareness and greater combat range on internal fuel tank only the ef-35c is also believed to be very good at Close Quarters fighting due to having among other things a far more powerful engine the incorporation of the ef-35c on the fourth class to complement the super Hornets should vastly increase its combat capability in every respite similar to its predecessors the fort comes with a host of anti-air Weaponry for self-defense when incoming missiles are detected in the medium range they will be engaged by two Mark 29 missile launchers using the evolved sea Sparrow missiles if the enemy missile gets past this layer of the fence the shorts range rolling airframe missiles will be fired to intercept they are fired by a pier of the mark 49 missile launchers finally if oils fails the Ford will rely on a tree Phalanx C was closing weapon systems the Phalanx is a six barrel to 20 millimeter cannon firing armor-piercing tungsten rounds at a rate of 3 to 4.5 000 rounds per minute this is the last line of defense before any incoming missiles strike the ship the previous Nimitz class has a very similar level of self-defense Armament as we mentioned before the fort has a high level of unused extra power generation thanks to the high energy outputs of the big toe aib nuclear reactors this is of course deliberate there is the potential to install direct energy weapons or free electron lasers on the Ford in the future to bolster its close range defense capability the US Navy has been testing direct energy weapons with increasing regularity over the past decade lasers are expected to be installed on the three Zoom worlds class destroyers as well the older Nimitz class are not believed to be able to use direct energy weapons and are poorly placed to receive upgrades in general due in parts to binding limitations and its power generation capability the fort is the first U.S aircraft carrier to be equipped with a geo-band radar system which was initially designed for the zoom worlds class destroyers but this was actually never fully realized for the zoom Worlds the Gerald R Ford has the an spy shree expand multi-function radar which is an active electronically scanned array excelling at shorts to medium ranges she also has the an spy 4 ispand radar for longer range volume search the zoom world's destroy us however kept only the an spy 3 expand radar while the ear spend radar was canceled on the zoom worlds due to budgetary concerns starting from the second ship of the fourth class the John F Kennedy a more advanced airspend radar the ANS by 6 will replace the an spy 4 as the long-range search radar the Gerald R Ford completed a set of Sri full ship shock trials between June and August 2021 the shock trials are designed to ensure she can withstand battle conditions and can survive near misses without affecting the operability of onboard systems including the radars forty thousand pounds or 18 tons of ordinances were detonated under water close to the ship measuring as a 3.9
magnitude earthquake the test was determined to be successful with no injuries fires or flooding and the ship resumed operations immediately after the explosion aircraft carriers are floating cities so you would find many of the same facilities found on land let's talk about some of the amenities on board the Ford food Up appeared in two massive kitchens or galleys in the naval speak there is a large centralized Galley towards the AFT of the aircraft carrier and a smaller Galley towards the front that will be used generally when the Carrier Air Wing is on board around 17 000 meals need to be prepared daily by a team of little over 100 Sailors Cooks Bakers and butchers which is no easy task the galley's benefits from many machines that can cook any kind of meat bake any bread and produce a huge variety of different meals all a massive quantities the majority of equipments are enormous so they can cook and hold the enormous amounts of food needed by the huge number of carrier personnel these include an industrial oven an industrial grill a huge vegetable steamer in a large deep fryer the meals range from breakfast served as 6 a.m to Midnight's rations for the crew members that work late below the galley a refrigeration unit holds pellets upon pallets of pineapples tomatoes and melons in the corner bags of onions were neatly piled halfway to the ceiling these storage rooms were designed with a number of modular Refrigeration units to maintain everything in storage at a difference in steady temperature in the Nimitz Legacy system with storage set up around a centralized Refrigeration units a change to the temperature of one section would have fixed the temperature of everything else resulting in poorer storage conditions and risking spoilage there is no such problem on the fort it is often claimed that Sailors on board a Ford class aircraft carrier will eat better than anyone else on a U.S warship although possibly with the exception of U.S submarinas strictly speaking foreign good food is important for morale and morale is even more important for submarine crew that needs to stay underwater for weeks or even months anyway back to the fort enlisted service members on the fort can obtain all of the everyday Necessities from the Russians they were given but should they require more specialized products due to individual circumstances or for recreation that can go to a grocery store on board the ship this can range from junk food to keep morale High tobacco or hygiene products the store averages ten thousand dollars of Revenue per day and over 1 000 transactions to purchase medications the crew will go to a pharmacy attached to the onboard Hospital the hospital has an operating room a laboratory in ICU an emergency room in a sizable Hospital Ward as you might expect to maintain hygiene among four and a half thousand people requires a large and efficient system of toilets and waste treatments the Sip uses a system of vacuum-powered septic system toilets although no Uranus since the toilets are built to be gender neutral since deployments the first two carriers of the Ford class have run into problems with the plumbing of the sewage the toilet pipes were too narrow to handle the large load of the well-fed sailors resulting in the vacuum failing and repeatedly clogging the toilet to deal with the problem specialized acidic Cleaning Solutions have been used to flush out the leftover sewage these cleaning treatments are incredibly expensive costing four hundred thousand dollars each time resulting in a substantial unplanned increase in the lifetime expense of operating these ships so the lesson here is never skimp helps on having working toilets when the ship's stock of food stores ammunition and Elder Commodities are running low it is time for resupply wind and ports oil and base resupply is easy enough from the land-based facilities however how does the Ford resupply win at least in the middle of the ocean well the Ford can absolutely replenish at Sea while remaining in motion this is also called underway replenishments which allows a carrier to remain at Sea indefinitely at least in theory if needed the simplest and possibly the fastest method is via vertical replenishments using a helicopter this is effective and efficient for moving small amounts of Supply between ships although the volume and types of stores that can be replenished through this method is limited owing to inherence limitations in the helicopters load carrying capacity to move large volumes of stores from a Combat Supply ship to the carrier the alongside connected replenishments needs to be performed this involves the carrier in the supply ship sailing parallel to each other at close distance stores are transferred across to the carrier through a strong cable connecting the two ships this is the more difficult potentially dangerous and yet far more common method of resupply because it allows large volumes of stores to be resupplied aircraft carriers are the mighty Capital ships of the world's strongest navies including the United States and China some of the smaller power's own aircraft carriers as well because they are so indispensable for power projection far away from their own National borders a country with a large land Army but no Navy will struggle to intimidate countries that are too far away but almost every country can be swayed and coerced by a powerful navy alone the Gerald R Ford class is currently the most powerful aircraft carrier of all she is also well prepared to handle future technological upgrades and is expected to serve the U.S Navy for at least the next 50 years there are some talks about weather aircraft carriers are becoming obsolete whether they are too expensive and too vulnerable to land-based missile systems in the tech submarines I don't know what is the answer to these questions but one thing is for sure super carriers will remain feared by the vast majority of countries on Earth and will continue to elicit a strong response from any opponent
2023-06-26 21:26
