Advanced technologies and innovative design layouts set new benchmarks in naval aviation-the hallmark of U.S. Navy Ford-class aircraft carriers. The changes have been underlined by Commander Richard Rosenbusch, Assistant Air Officer of the USS Gerald R. Ford, at a media briefing here in Portsmouth, UK, on the occasion of its first operational deployment.
One of the most critical of the ongoing modifications is a cutback on the aircraft elevators from four to three compared to the Nimitz-class carriers. Taken together, this and the repositioning of the aircraft carrier’s island further toward the back of the vessel and tucking the refueling station onto the flight deck significantly enhanced air operations. “What [all this] does is it increases our sortie generation rate,” Rosenbusch said. This means, that with sufficient training short carriers can launch and recover more aircraft faster, akin to reloading a revolver faster.
The new flight deck layout has enabled efficiency in the parking and taxiing of aircraft. “We can park more aircraft in front of the island, we have more room to taxi the aircraft,” Rosenbusch said. This, it does avoid jamming the deck so a safe and free landing area for incoming aircraft is assured.
Other technologies make launch and recovery even more efficient, including the Electro-Magnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG). The new fueling stations in the deck can save time from on-deck refueling that does not involve working around cumbersome hoses. “Now we just open up a hatch, and we can attach a hose and refuel them right there,” Rosenbusch said.
The AWEs are another game-changer. Unlike on the Nimitz-class carriers, where a lot of the real estate is taken up on the flight deck by weapons staging areas, the Ford-class carriers have their areas below deck. “The AWEs are a big game-changer because we don’t need to take a piece of our flight deck’s real estate and dedicate that to weapons anymore,” Rosenbusch explained. These elevators, carrying 24,000 pounds of ammunition at 150 feet a minute, dwarf Nimitz-class ships in capacity and speed, which have a 10,000-pound capacity and 100 feet per minute.
According to the Weapons Officer, Commander James Fish, he pointed out that AWE operational benefits arose. “We learned that we can be a lot faster in our full re-load capability. We can take bulk ammunition very quickly, and that has been a huge game-changer,” said he.
The Ford-class carriers have shown their mettle in high-end naval war scenarios as one of the classes participated in Exercise Silent Wolverine off the coast of France. This exercise, conducted this past May, tested the capability of the carrier in concert with NATO allies Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States.
These advancements make Ford-class carriers better, not only in the regular course of action but also in establishing a new standard for the future of flying naval operations. The capital investment in these leading-edge technologies and their ideal solutions in design secures the Ford class as the leader in naval warfare for a great many years.