I was reading about the USS Gerald Ford deploying for the first time, and one article mentioned that it just finished a round of maintenance and modernization.
Now maintenance I can understand. It just finished testing and needed a screw tightened here and a squirt of oil there… But modernization? It just came out of the shipyard, it should be as modern as it gets, right? Why would it need modernization?
It’s been a while.
Construction began on 11 August 2005, when Northrop Grumman held a ceremonial steel cut for a 15-ton plate that forms part of a side shell unit of the carrier.[16] The keel of Gerald R. Ford was laid down on 13 November 2009.[4] She was christened on 9 November 2013.[6] Gerald R. Ford entered the fleet replacing the decommissioned USS Enterprise (CVN-65), which ended her 51 years of active service in December 2012
Carriers constantly get improvements. A first of type one with many new systems is going to get new ones. Sometimes it is weapon systems and often it is smaller systems. On the Ford, a good chance it was the ammo elevators getting updates. They’ve had a lot of issues with these.
The Navy keeps rolling out new defensive weapons and radar systems. The Ford might have got something in this area.
Software bug fixes and upgrades, new computer processors being used in HW, new improved paint technology and so on, the improvement and modernization never stops. The B-52 bombers from the 60’s are the most modernized platforms around and the proof is in the fact that we keep using them.
One reason we have the best armed forces in the world is that we maintain and improve our systems. It also lets us sell the same basic technology such as fighter jets to foreign nations without worry that they will be used against us in the future due to them having what we would consider obsolete parts and systems we know how to bypass.
I did some checking and it looks like a new Radar system was recently installed.
Thanks for the quick answers. I assumed that when it was launching on its first deployment it would have been like a year out of the shipyard. Crazy that it has been that long with no deployment.
The Ford had more new systems introduced into a Carrier design than any carrier since the first (The USS Langley) (Maybe more). It is not a normal launch.
They’ve had plenty of problems with some of the new systems. Here are some of them.
One of the neat things about the Ford-class is that it was built with an open wide platform on its “island” specifically for “future technologies.” - things the designers anticipated would be used in the future but didn’t know what yet.
Ooohhh…tell me more!
ABE3 (Gear) Zakalwe
I was able to verify, the Nuclear Power Plant is new to the Ford Class.
The A1B reactor.
This replaces the Navy workhorses the A4W reactors in use for nearly 50 years now.
The A1B is about 700 MWth vs. 550 MWth.
They are smaller, weigh less and in theory easier to operate.
Sorry, all I know on these is what I’ve read. They’ve worked well from day one is my understanding so less has been written about them. I know they were in development in nearby Lakehurst NJ when I use to drive past the base every day. This is back to the 90s.
The new Enterprise is due to launch in 2025 I believe. I’ve followed this one pretty closely. The extra power generation of the Ford class means the Enterprise might actually launch with a defensive Laser system.
The Enterprise CVN-80 is using about 20000 tons of steel from the USS Enterprise CVN-65 and will have 4 Port Holes from the original Big “E” CV-6, the most important ship in the history of the world. The one that for half a year held of the Japanese fleet virtually by herself after the Hornet was sunk in October of 1942. Leading to the famous sign: “Enterprise vs Japan.”
She was in every major Navy battle in the Pacific save 2 if I recall correctly. I believe the Big “E” was reported sunk 8 times by the Japanese and they gave her the nickname of the Grey Ghost or something close.
She earned 20 battle stars in WWII, the most in WWII. The second most decorated ship ever after the USS New Jersey, BB-62. Though over a much longer time period going from 1943 to 1991.
Yeah, I looked some stuff up on my own as well. Interesting.
One of the benefits of the old design was that the system was electricity-independent. No external power was required other than the landing aircraft. The system stored the energy and used that to reset the system. The only thing it needed was the occasional removal or addition of pressurized air and we had backup bottles for that in case of an emergency.
The improvement in control was the big thing they were going for. Also the design is largely regenerative I thought, so I’m guessing they can either continue under Emergency Generators or have some other backup system.
I thought the old ones used some steam power to make up for the what was lost in regenerative power. Maybe that was older systems like we had on the Ranger.
Not for the gear (at least any I ever worked on). Hydraulic fluid and 400psi air were all we needed.
I forgot about that. The Air Pressure tanks was also one of 3 ways to start the Emergency Diesels.
Most arms producing nations do that; there’s a reason Kraus-Maffei is producing the Leopard 2A7+ these days, for example.
But the broad way that we do it to just about all of everything we have on a regular basis is more of a consequence of the size of our defense budget- we can afford to modernize a carrier that hasn’t been launched yet, or continue to upgrade 30 year old tanks to be as capable as new production tanks from elsewhere.
It seems reasonable to assume that anything that takes years to design and build, will have a number of obsolete systems built in by the time it’s finished.
I used to work in a brand new hospital. As soon as the main builder left the site, another one moved in to modify the building to meet current requirements.
The first ship of a new class always has teething problems.
Nice article on the Ford
I remember getting the presentation with the 3D computer mock-up of the reactor plant spaces when I was in nuclear power school, like, fifteen years ago. Does that make me old?
Surprisingly, none of my ships have been decommissioned yet. Though one should have been before I was even on it.
Unless I missed it, failed to mention earlier is a major improvement relative to flight operations. The combination of catapults and bomb elevators will allow for quicker launches and recoveries.