{"id":1781522,"date":"2022-12-20T07:52:51","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T12:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1781522"},"modified":"2022-12-20T11:03:35","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T16:03:35","slug":"at-sea-with-the-navys-newest-carrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/at-sea-with-the-navys-newest-carrier\/","title":{"rendered":"At Sea With the Navy\u2019s Newest Carrier"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fat-sea-with-the-navys-newest-carrier%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1781522&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"inline-image align-\">\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/291122FORDTECHphoto02.jpg\" alt=\"The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford transits the Atlantic Ocean while conducting flight operations Oct. 23, 2022.\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>\n            The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford transits the Atlantic Ocean while conducting flight operations Oct. 23, 2022. (Jackson Adkins\/U.S. Navy)\n          <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">(Tribune News Service) \u2014\u00a0\u201cUSS Gerald R.\u00a0Ford: The Biggest and Baddest\u201d reads a T-shirt in the store aboard the Navy\u2019s newest aircraft carrier. The slogan appeared again on a poster not far from the galley. And it was repeated by the ship\u2019s captain as he overlooked the flight deck from the bridge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">Since the early 2000s, the\u00a0Navy\u00a0has marketed the\u00a0Ford\u00a0as the future of American warships. The ship \u2014 1,106 feet in length \u2014 is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stripes.com\/branches\/navy\/2022-11-28\/aircraft-carrier-ford-8217830.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">jam-packed with 23 never-before-seen technologies<\/a> meant to \u201ccarry the\u00a0Navy\u00a0into the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cThis will be the most powerful warship our\u00a0Navy\u00a0has put to sea \u2014 probably any\u00a0Navy\u00a0ever,\u201d said\u00a0Paul Lanzilotta, commander of the\u00a0Ford.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">But supporters of the\u00a0Ford\u00a0say its $13 billion price tag gave it a bad name, with the cost overshadowing the Ford\u2019s capabilities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">At $4 billion over budget, the ship is the costliest single item on the Department of Defense\u2019s shopping list \u2014 a stigma the\u00a0Navy\u00a0has struggled to shake while working to differentiate it from Nimitz-class carriers, which come at a fraction of the price.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">Dozens of sailors \u2014 each donning a helmet, goggles and hearing protection \u2014 scurry around the flight deck in choreographed chaos. They step almost without looking over ropes, chains and cords, quickly resetting the arresting gear, directing a taxiing aircraft to the launch area or fueling a waiting aircraft. Only hand signals are used to relay information as heavy ear protection muffles sound from the outside world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">But it can\u2019t block out the chest-rattling noise of fighter jets launching from or landing atop the carrier as it cruised the\u00a0Atlantic\u00a0in October. The\u00a0Ford\u00a0completed a 53-day deployment last month, during which the\u00a0Navy\u00a0invited reporters aboard to see some of the technology in action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">The carrier\u2019s new electromagnetic-powered aircraft launch system (EMALS) and the advanced arresting gear are two of the much-touted technologies unique to\u00a0Ford-class carriers. EMALS uses stored kinetic energy and solid-state electrical power conversion to propel an aircraft along a track and off the carrier, while the arresting gear is a turbo-electric system designed for more controlled deceleration of aircraft. The technology, the\u00a0Navy\u00a0said, means the air-wing can get into the air \u2014 and return to the battle after rearming and refueling \u2014 faster than with the traditional steam-and-hydraulics systems that have been the mainstay for decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cIt does feel a little different, the acceleration on Nimitz (when being catapulted off the ship) is kind of a punch all at once. This (a\u00a0Ford\u00a0catapult launch), you will feel a more graduated acceleration as you go down the (catapult). It\u2019s a little easier on your neck. When you trap (land) on Nimitz, everything tends to get thrown forward in cockpit. (The arresting gear wire) does feel played a little differently (on the\u00a0Ford),\u201d said Cmdr.\u00a0John Peterson, the Ford\u2019s air officer.<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-image align-center default\">\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/20221218-AMX-US-NEWS-CAPABILITIES-AT-COST-AT-SEA-1-VP.jpg\" alt=\"A pilot sits in the cockpit of a jet in between flight operations on the flight deck of the USS Gerald R. Ford CVN-78 on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022.\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>\n            A pilot sits in the cockpit of a jet in between flight operations on the flight deck of the USS Gerald R. Ford CVN-78 on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. (Kendall Warner, The Virginian-Pilot\/TNS)\n          <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">To adapt to the needs of the new system, the Ford\u2019s crew has more electricians and fewer traditional mechanics, compared to the Nimitz, contributing to a reduction of personnel by around 500 sailors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">While the Ford\u2019s EMALS and advanced arresting gear have been widely promoted by the\u00a0Navy\u00a0as a selling point, the move away from steam was criticized by President\u00a0Donald Trump,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2017\/05\/11\/president-trump-wants-ford-carriers-use-goddamned-steam-catapults-instead-no-good-electromagnetic-launchers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>U.S. Naval Institute News\u00a0reported in 2017<\/u><\/a>, who said the automation of the system was \u201cno good\u201d technology that cost millions more than the steam system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cIt\u2019s very complicated \u2014 you have to be\u00a0Albert Einstein\u00a0to figure it out,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">And in 2021, an annual report from the Pentagon\u2019s top weapons tester doubted the\u00a0Ford\u00a0could meet its sortie generation rate requirement and achieve a self-defense requirement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cPoor reliability of key systems that support sortie generation on CVN-78 could cause a cascading series of delays during flight operations that would likely negatively affect CVN-78\u2032s ability to generate sorties. The reliability of these critical subsystems represents the most risk to the successful completion of CVN-78,\u201d the report from the director, operational test and evaluation said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">But the ship\u2019s chief engineer, Cmdr.\u00a0Homer Hensy, said the move from steam to electromagnetics was a \u201cnecessary\u201d investment \u2014 necessary to save money, necessary to reduce downtime during maintenance cycles and necessary for the\u00a0Navy\u00a0to maintain its edge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cI think a lot of people have been staring at the dollar signs. &#8230; There were a lot of decisions made to put advanced technology on the\u00a0Ford\u00a0instead of spreading it out across two or three aircraft carriers because it is what we needed now,\u201d said Hensy, as he stood in a hangar bay of the\u00a0Ford\u00a0while it cruised the\u00a0Atlantic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">The cutting edge technology was the driving force behind the warship\u2019s growing costs. The technology, previously unproven, pushed the Ford\u2019s first deployment back by four years after on-shore testing revealed unexpected problems that delayed the installation of key components of the ship and required hundreds of millions of dollars to fix.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cThe advanced weapons elevator \u2014 there\u2019s no lab for that. The\u00a0Navy\u00a0just dreamt it up and bought it &#8230; I understand it is not a cheap technology, but it\u2019s the price of freedom,\u201d Hensy said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">The Government Accountability Office reported the arresting gear cost $149 million \u2014 nearly double its original estimate of $75 million. And the cost of the electromagnetic catapult system climbed from $318 million to $664 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">According a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/crsreports.congress.gov\/product\/pdf\/RS\/RS20643\/273\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>Congressional Research Service\u00a0report dated\u00a0Aug. 26, 2022<\/u><\/a>, by Ronald O\u2019Rourke, the\u00a0Navy\u00a0struggled to control the Ford\u2019s costs \u201cfor years,\u201d which he stated in his report was fueled by \u201can unrealistically low\u201d $10 billion estimate provided back in 2008.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">The original number, O\u2019Rourke\u2019s report reads, \u201cmight have reflected an underestimate of the intrinsic challenges of building the then-new\u00a0Ford-class design compared to those of building the previous and well understood Nimitz-class design.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">The warship\u2019s 11 advanced weapons elevators were among the most problematic of the new technologies, which were delivered more than a decade late.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cBut it was worth it,\u201d said Lanzilotta, who was assigned commander of the\u00a0Ford\u00a0when just six of the elevators were fully functioning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">Below the flight deck, a weapons elevator effortlessly glided down to the hangar bay as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jeff Towry demonstrated how the system hoists bombs and armament from the Ford\u2019s magazines to the flight deck, to be loaded onto aircraft. Like the catapults, the elevators are electromagnetic \u2014 replacing a cable-driven system \u2014 and now operate through WiFi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cThis platform is ultimately floating in the air when it is in transit. The magnetics pull it up and down,\u201d\u00a0Towry\u00a0said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">Seven of the elevators operate in the ship\u2019s lower stages in the main magazine areas, with three in the upper stages and one utility elevator that serves the hangar bay and flight deck. The system features two ballistic hatches, protecting the rest of the ship from the magazine where all ammunition is stored, which\u00a0Towry\u00a0said would not be possible unless it was a wireless system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">Cmdr.\u00a0Jim Fish, weapons officer for the\u00a0Ford, said the elevators are also stronger and faster than those on Nimitz-class carriers. Increased strength and speed, he said, equal reduced vulnerability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cWhen we do combat reloads and routine operations, that\u2019s where the real critical value comes with these elevators. All the technology we brought into it allows redundancy, allows for reliability, survivability, all these \u2018ilities\u2019 that are very important to us to be combat ready,\u201d Fish said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">While the system development took longer than expected, the elevators ran as advertised during the ship\u2019s two-month deployment, operators and officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">Defense analyst\u00a0Bryan McGrath\u00a0said the Ford\u2019s challenge in joining the fleet is not unique to the advanced warship. And he predicts future\u00a0Ford-class carriers \u2014\u00a0John F. Kennedy, Enterprise, and\u00a0Doris Miller, which are in production \u2014 will be delivered quicker and without breaking the bank.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cTo some extent, it is the nature of the beast when you\u2019re trying to do something that\u2019s incredibly complex. And to some extent, it\u2019s a function of an acquisition and construction system that could use some optimization and some work,\u201d said McGrath, who is the director of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ferrybridgegroup.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>Ferry Bridge Group<\/u><\/a>, a defense and national security consultancy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">TheKennedy was procured in Fiscal year 2013. The\u00a0Navy\u00a0estimates it will cost around $12.7 billion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cThe ship is being built with an improved shipyard fabrication and assembly process that incorporates lessons learned from the construction of CVN-78 (USS Gerald R.\u00a0Ford),\u201d O\u2019Rourke said\u00a0in the August report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">Among the lessons learned is the dual band radar, a new flush-mounted, two-phased array radar meant to replace the spinning radar on the older class carriers, that crew members said was powerful \u2014 maybe even too powerful.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cIf I have a threat, (the dual band radar) can identify (and keep) a precision track on threats and never lose contact wherever the track goes. I would say it probably is more powerful than you need to do with carrier missions we had done in the past,\u201d said Cmdr.\u00a0Tom Pilkerton, combat systems officer for the\u00a0Ford.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2015\/03\/17\/peo-carriers-cvn-79-will-have-a-new-radar-save-180m-compared-to-dual-band-radar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Naval Institute\u00a0reported\u00a0the\u00a0Navy<\/a>\u00a0scrapped the radar in 2015 in an effort to cut costs. Rear Adm.\u00a0Thomas Moore, program executive officer for aircraft carriers, stated at the time that analysis showed the carrier didn\u2019t need all the system\u2019s capabilities. Instead, future\u00a0Ford\u00a0carriers will be outfitted with the\u00a0Raytheon-designed air and missile defense radar, now officially named AN\/SPY-6, which the\u00a0Congressional Research Service\u00a0reports will save around $180 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">McGrath said future costs will also be lessened by the Navy\u2019s block buy purchase of future carriers Enterprise (CVN-80) and\u00a0Doris Miller\u00a0(CVN-81), a contract awarded to\u00a0Huntington Ingalls Industries\u00a0in 2019. Buying the carriers two-at-a-time, McGrath said, stabilized the industrial base and will ultimately save around $4 billion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cThat is a significant savings because you are buying at scale \u2014 the steel, the parts,\u201d McGrath said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">According to O\u2019Rourke\u2019s\u00a0Congressional Research Service\u00a0report, the Enterprise and\u00a0Doris Miller\u00a0are estimated to cost $12.8 billion and $12.9 billion respectively before factoring in the $4 billion savings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\">\u201cBut it\u2019s worth every penny &#8230; The acquisition costs \u2014 I understand, it gets people\u2019s attention. But the bottom line is that the USS Ford will get people\u2019s attention for 50 years and we can\u2019t lose sight of that,\u201d McGrath said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\"><a href=\"mailto:caitlyn.burchett@virginiamedia.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>caitlyn.burchett@virginiamedia.com<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\"><i>\u00a92022 The Virginian-Pilot. <\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\"><i>Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/pilotonline.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pilotonline.com<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"storyline-p f4\"><i>Distributed by <a href=\"http:\/\/tribunecontentagency.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tribune Content Agency, LLC<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford transits the Atlantic Ocean while conducting flight operations Oct. 23, 2022. (Jackson Adkins\/U.S. Navy)  (Tribune News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1781525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[5458,8412,8414,3819,10574],"class_list":["post-1781522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-bongino","tag-carrier","tag-navys","tag-report","tag-sea"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1781522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1781525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1781522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1781522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1781522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}