Key Point and Summary: With continued budget support, the Ford-class is set to dominate future maritime warfare, ensuring that the U.S. Navy remains the most powerful force at sea for decades to come. The era of the supercarrier is far from over.
Revolutionizing Naval Power: How the Ford-Class Aircraft Carrier Is Changing Warfare
The United States Navy’s Ford-class carriers have had a long and arduous journey since coming into existence many years ago. Yet, they have progressively and slowly blasted their way through a cloud of difficulty, technological challenges, and developmental setbacks to deploy with force successfully.
The primary challenge with the Ford-class’s development goes back many years and relates to technological maturity, cost, and timeline.
Years ago, many observers and members of Congress argued that the Ford-class enterprise was far too ambitious and expensive to favor success, yet the Navy stayed the course.
As far back as 10 years ago, earlier in the development of the Ford, the Navy explained that some of the costs were non-recurring research and technology costs necessary for a first-in-class platform.
The Navy emphasized that, due to increased computer automation, energy efficiency, and advanced technologies, the service would save as much as $4 billion per carrier throughout the life of the ship.
USS Ford Aircraft Carrier Deployed at Sea
Now that the USS Ford has completed successful deployments, many are likely to take a retrospective look at the merits of the new technologies built into the platform.
There were massive growing pains, to be certain, yet the Ford class has emerged with breakthrough, paradigm-changing technology that arguably ushers in a new era of Naval warfare.
There are several key primary areas of paradigm-changing technology built into the Ford, including new computer automation applications, an electromagnetic catapult, unprecedented levels of onboard power generation, a larger flight deck and electric elevators for faster and more efficient refueling and re-arming.
The larger flight deck on the Ford allows for a 33-percent increase in sortie rate, an increase in air power projection supported by a long-in-development Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALs).
Using a roller-coaster-like electromagnetic current to catapult aircraft, the EMALS replaces historic steam catapults.
This enables a smoother, faster, and steadier takeoff and landing.
A Long Technological Journey
Years ago, developers told Warrior Maven that with EMALS, fighter jet takeoff would be less like a “shot-gun” type of approach supported by a steam catapult but instead launch with a much steadier, progressively increasing surge of power to ensure a more stable takeoff.
This not only allowed for faster, steadier, and more successful launches but also reduced wear and tear on the airframes of fighter jets.
While EMALS is now operational and considered a successful breakthrough, the technology took years to develop and encountered developmental setbacks—a similar situation developed with the Ford-class electric elevators, as they encountered technological difficulties while developing.
However, electric elevators massively streamline re-arming and refueling fighter aircraft, which enables faster, larger, and more impactful projection of air power.
Computer Automation on Ford-Class
Yet another area of breakthrough progress with the Ford-class relates to onboard electrical power. Of course, more electrical power has been needed on the Ford-class to support EMALS, new computing, and a growing number of weapons systems and command and control technologies.
Four 26-megawatt generators enable the Ford to operate with as much as 104 Megawatts of onboard power.
This is quite significant, particularly given that Ford-carriers now operate with an onboard drone-focused command and control system requiring new amounts of electrical power.
Additional electrical power supports the continued development of communications technology and layered ship defenses.
Alongside the USS Ford’s success, some of the technological growing pains are continuing, at least according to a recent DOT&E report, which cited problems with the ship’s cutting-edge dual-band radar.
The world’s largest aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), steams in the Mediterranean Sea, Dec. 24, 2023. The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Mediterranean Sea. The U.S. maintains forward-deployed, ready, and postured forces to deter aggression and support security and stability around the world. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jacob Mattingly)
An essay on Yahoo reports that findings from the assessment revealed some radar-coverage challenges, indicating the radar might need to be replaced.
The scope of this problem and the pace at which it can be rectified appear less known and may not imperil Ford’s continued progress.
A recent essay in Army Recognition lends additional evidence supporting the Ford-class’ continued successful technological development, as it explains that the Navy’s 2025 budget plans include high levels of continued funding for the Ford-class.
As part of the advanced technological systems woven into the USS Ford, computer automation has enabled the ship to operate with roughly 900 fewer sailors by performing functions that historically needed human operators; this saves money and streamlines overall efficiency on the ship.
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) completes the first scheduled explosive event of Full Ship Shock Trials while underway in the Atlantic Ocean, June 18, 2021. The U.S. Navy conducts shock trials of new ship designs using live explosives to confirm that our warships can continue to meet demanding mission requirements under harsh conditions they might encounter in battle.
Overall, integrating these and other new technologies is successfully deployed on the USS Ford. This reality suggests that the many developmental obstacles ultimately yielded an extremely positive result.
With the Ford-class, the US Navy can now successfully project greater amounts of power on a larger scale, fortified by new generations of maritime warfare technology.
About the Author: Kris Osborn
Kris Osborn is the Military Technology Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in 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
