WASHINGTON, D.C. — The aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) will have a different radar than the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), bringing the new Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR) into the carrier fleet one ship earlier than planned and saving the program about $180 million, according to the Navy.
Program Executive Officer for Aircraft Carriers Rear Adm. Tom Moore said the new EASR was meant to enter the fleet in the amphibious assault ship LHA-8 and in USS Enterprise (CVN-80), but a series of events made the early introduction possible.
Ford has the Dual Band Radar (DBR) originally built for the truncated Zumwalt (DDG-1000) class of guided missile destroyer. When the Navy planned to build 27 destroyers, the cost of the DBR would have dropped sufficiently to make it a good fit for the carriers. But without that economy of scale, the carrier program had decided to seek a new radar for CVN-80 and beyond.
“I already have to procure a new radar for 80,” Moore told USNI News after a presentation at the Credit Suisse/McAleese 2016 Defense Programs Conference. “80 is delivering in 2027. CVN-79, which really is not going to become operational until Nimitz (CVN-68) leaves in 2025, is such a short gap, so I went back to the warfare systems guys and said, hey, the radar that we’re looking at for 80 … is there an opportunity to pull that back a little bit to the left and make it available for CVN-79? As it turned out, LHA-8 needed a radar anyway, and the Pentagon had an ongoing effort called basically the Common Affordable Radar – if you want it to be affordable it’s got to be common – so both N98 and N95 and N96, the three resource sponsors, got together with the [Navy acquisition chief Sean Stackley’s] office and said, hey, let’s put a series of requirements together for a radar that would meet the needs of both the aircraft carrier and the big deck amphib.
“We had this working group, they came back to us probably late last summer and said it’s possible,” he continued. “There are off-the-shelf systems, it’s not developmental, that will meet these requirements.”
Moore said the Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems would release a request for proposals (RfP) around May, with bids due back in late summer.
“We already know there are radars out there that meet the technical specs that we need, so introducing some competition here will drive cost down,” Moore said.
Whatever radar PEO IWS selects will be less capable than the DBR, which Moore said is fine – “a $500 million radar on an aircraft carrier is overkill at this point,” he said of DBR.
The radar selected for the carriers and amphibs will likely only have volume search capability and need a fire control complement to go with it. Moore said the Navy may use a SPQ-9 fire control system or something comparable.
He also noted that the Nimitz-class carriers’ AN/SPS-48 and AN-SPS-49 radars were becoming obsolete and could be replaced by the new EASR, meaning the new radar would fill three ship class’s requirements.
“From what PEO IWS tells me, it’s a very low technical-risk solution,” Moore said. “I suspect it will be a robust competition”
The ability to bring in this new radar one ship early – creating a one-time savings of about $180 million, Moore said – was primarily due to the Navy’s decision to switch Kennedy’s construction schedule to a two-phased delivery.
“That gave me a little extra time. If I had to deliver CVN-79 in 2022 when it was originally designed, it wouldn’t have had the radar on it,” Moore said. “The two-phased strategy gives me the lowest possible cost for the ship, and the radar is a big piece of that.”
The Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) shipyard in Newport News, Virginia is all abuzz as below deck-testing of the Navy’s newest aircraft launch system begins aboard nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). Following months of large-scale hardware deliveries containing critical components of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and shipboard installation by HII, teams from the government and industry partner General Atomics completed installation of the software — the brains of the new system. Below deck-testing began Aug. 11 with the Launch Control Subsystem, the first of many subsystem assessments on the path toward EMALS shipboard certification.
The Navy is preparing to launch the first ship-board tests of a new Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System designed to replace steam catapults and propel fighter jets and other aircraft off the deck of an aircraft carrier and into the sky over the ocean, service officials said.
The EMALS system, which uses an electromagnetic field to propel aircraft instead of the currently used steam catapult, is slated for the new Ford-class aircraft carriers. The first EMALS system has been under construction for several years aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), the first in class of the new carriers expected to deliver to the Navy in 2016, Navy officials said.
This summer, the Navy will start incremental testing on board the USS Ford wherein “dead loads” placed on weighted sleds are catapulted by the EMALS system into the river, said Capt. Jim Donnelly, program manager for aircraft launch and recovery equipment.
“As things get connected they will increase the number of tests. The first aircraft launch will be after the ship gets to sea,” Donnelly said.
Ship integration and testing for the EMALS technology will mark a substantial milestone in a program which, until now, has largely been conducting land-based flight tests at a Navy facility in Lakehurst, N.J.
“We’ve conducted 452 aircraft launches and just finished up our second phase of aircraft compatibility testing,” Donnelly explained.
The ground-based EMALS catapult tests have launched EA-18G Growlers, F/A-18 Super Hornets, C-2 Greyhound planes and E2D Advanced Hawkeyes, among others. In fact, EMALS even launched an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at Lakehurst, Donnelly added. The USS Ford has been under construction in recent years at Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls.
Equipment for the EMALS system has been in development on board the ship for several years, Navy officials said. General Atomics was awarded a $573 million deal from the Navy in 2009 for EMALS development....
...
Metal decking is slated to be placed over the trough on the flight deck. Donnelly said cabling and linear induction motor sections are still being installed on board the USS Ford. The linear motors are engineered to help create a sequentially activated rolling magnetic field or wave able to thrust or propel aircraft forward, Donnelly explained.
“It is the same type of technology that you see in a rollercoaster except this one is designed for critical launch reliability. It has to work every time you press the launch button. You are getting an electromagnetic field by turning on linear motor sequentially so we don’t energize the whole field in one shot,” he explained.
The electromagnetic field acts on a large 22-foot long aluminum plate, he added. The aluminum plate runs in between stationary sections of 12-foot long linear motors. Electricity runs through the two sides of the motors, creating an electromagnetic wave, Donnelly explained.
“The aircraft motors are kicked in at the beginning. There’s a hydraulic piston that pushes a shuttle forward. The shuttle is what connects to the aircraft launch bar,” Donnelly said.
The EMALS system is engineered to be both steady and tailorable, meaning it can adjust to different aircraft weights and configurations, Donnelly said. For example, EMALS is configured such that it could launch a lighter weight aircraft, such as an unmanned aircraft system, he added.
This weekend, the United States Navy christened what many claim is its greatest engineering achievement: the USS Gerald Ford supercarrier, the first in a completely new line of warships called the Ford class.
The ship, seated in a huge dock on the James River near the southern district of Newport News, Virginia, is the most technologically advanced, the most expensive, and one of the largest warships ever built. That's according to the Navy, but there's not much reason to doubt the assertions. The ship is huge. Rising out of the ocean to the height of a large office complex and stretching out toward the horizon as far as a couple football fields, it’s able to house a town’s population of more than 4,500 people, and, when it’s finally commissioned for duty on the high seas in 2016, it will weigh an astonishing 90,000 tons.
What’s more, the USS Gerald Ford — identified by its hull number, CVN 78, and known conversationally as "the Ford" — is also outfitted with electromagnetic catapults designed to shoot fighter jets into the sky (these had previously needed pneumatic systems; Ford-class carriers offered all-new technology), and the most advanced radar system ever deployed by the US military.
But all this heft and tech prowess isn’t cheap. At the moment, it’s estimated that the Ford will cost taxpayers at least $13 billion — an amount that, despite years of planning and calculation, has risen at least $2.3 billion since the ship’s construction costs were approved at a $10.5 billion budget in 2008. And it might rise higher still. While Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), the company contracted to construct the Ford, is confident it has built an aircraft carrier that will last well into the 21st century, high-profile critics such as Senator John McCain are asking whether the Ford is worth the cost and the monumental effort it will take to bring it to life.
Brian Nehrbass, the Ford’s Ship Design Manager at NNS, insists there’s a mountain of history one should understand before making any conclusions. He would know: as a designer with NNS, he’s worked on every iteration of the Ford project since it was introduced as a mere concept. That was back in 1996. At that point, the Navy’s state-of-the-art aircraft carriers were Nimitz-class — a fleet of 10 nuclear warships designed in the late 1960s and commissioned in May 1975.
The Nimitz class is still in operation to this day. But in March 1996, Navy officials anticipated they’d need "a new tactical aviation sea-based platform for the 21st century." By October 1998, a concept ship was authorized, with requests for a large deck that would hold 75 aircraft and a new nuclear propulsion plant. As designs progressed over the next decade, those requests became more precise and more numerous.
"Nimitz class was designed in an era when, in essence, manpower and sailors were free," Nehrbass says. "It was designed to operate with the draft. People were easy to get."
In 1975, the Navy included a total of 545,725 active-duty sailors. By 1996 that number had dropped to 419,075. Today, it’s even fewer; at 323,951, Navy personnel numbers have declined by about 41 percent since the first Nimitz-class carrier was commissioned. These warships were designed for 6,100 sailors. The next class would need to do more with fewer people. That meant deploying more planes faster, building longer-lasting and more advanced on-board tools, and generating more electricity to support these advanced tools.
With these requests in hand, NNS moved forward on its own. "The Navy’s ship specifications tell us what we must do and what we can’t do," Nehrbass explains. "Everything else is fair game." NSS used advanced 3D-modeling tools to put together a dream warship based on its constraints and its designers’ creativity. They arrived at some ambitious ideas.
While Nimitz-class designs used steam to keep ships running, the Ford will use electricity exclusively. That’ll allow many of the ship’s components to operate longer (because steam causes rust) and it’ll also allow for many innovations that have been desired among sailors for years, but will only make their operational debuts on the Ford.
Four innovations stand out.
The first is something called "flexible infrastructure architecture." This is a modular design that will allow spaces on the ship to be adaptable, like snap-in-place building blocks, without the use of "hot work" such as welding. So if the Navy wants to convert a room from being a storage space, for example, or living quarters, into an office or a boardroom, it can do that easily and quickly without having to hire big crews to take care of the work.
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced today that its Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division began flooding the dry dock where the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) has been under construction since November 2009. With the push of a dozen buttons, ship’s sponsor Susan Ford Bales initiated the flow of more than 100 million gallons of water into the dry dock.
The flooding of the dry dock takes place in phases during which various tests are conducted. Initially, the dock is flooded about 4 feet high to its keel blocks, wood-capped concrete pads on which the ship has been supported during construction. Once the dock is fully flooded and initial afloat testing is complete, water will be partially pumped out and the ship returned to her keel blocks in anticipation of Ford’s christening on Nov. 9. The ship will float again about a week later when it is moved to a pier for outfitting. Ford is scheduled for delivery to the U.S. Navy in 2016.
“Flooding of the dry dock, floating of the ship, and transfer to the outfitting pier all represent the successful completion of a tremendous amount of hard work by our talented shipbuilders,” said Rolf Bartschi, NNS’ vice president of CVN 78 carrier construction. “The shipbuilding team has taken great pride in building this first-of-class ship, and we all look forward to the next phase of ship construction and testing that will occur at the pier.” Gerald R. Ford represents the next-generation class of aircraft carriers. The first-in-class ship features a new nuclear power plant, a redesigned island, electromagnetic catapults, improved weapons movement, an enhanced flight deck capable of increased aircraft sortie rates, and growth margin for future technologies and reduced manning. “Thanks for holding my hand,” Bales said, addressing a group of shipbuilders following the event. “It has been really special, and walking down the side of the ship today, I wished my dad was here. He would have been so proud of all of you, and I’m proud of all of you.”
Patrick H. 's insight:
La fiche de caractéristiques du futur porte-avions américain de nouvelle génération :
WASHINGTON — The launch of the US aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford has been moved back from July to November, a consequence of production delays identified two years ago.
The move comes weeks after the US Navy and shipbuilder Newport News Shipbuilding moved the ship’s delivery from September 2015 — which has been the contracted date for some years — to early 2016.
“We’ve known this would probably happen for about two years,” Chris Johnson, a spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) said Monday. “Certainly it’s not ideal, but in this case it is very much a first-of-class issue. And those ships have challenges.”
The Ford is the first of the CVN 78-class carriers, the first new US carrier design since the mid-1960s. The 100,000-ton ships — the largest warships in the world — are also the first to be entirely designed using computer-aided design technologies.
Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the only shipbuilder in the world capable of building full-sized nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
The shipbuilder, in a statement released Monday, acknowledged its problems in making up the schedule delays. HII’s statement in full:
“Working closely with the Navy, we have revised the Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) launch date from July 2013 to November 2013. Although actions to resolve first-of-class issues have retired significant schedule risks, the revised launch date allows increased outfitting and ship construction that are most economically done prior to ship launch.
“As the first new design carrier beginning construction in more than 40 years, CVN 78 is designed to provide increased capability and reduced total ownership cost by about $4 billion compared to Nimitz-class carriers. For this first-of-class ship, construction commenced in parallel with design completion based on earlier decisions at [the] Department of Defense. Ongoing design during the construction process caused delay and inefficiencies in procurement, manufacturing, and assembly.
“We have demonstrated that delaying launch (and therefore delivery) to allow for increased outfitting and construction prior to launch is the most economical path forward to deliver the tremendous capability and affordability improvements resident in Ford. “
NAVSEA also released a statement on the shift in launch date:
“The CVN 78 launch date will be revised from July 2013 to November 2013, and delivery will be shifted to second quarter FY 2016. Although shipbuilder actions to resolve first-of-class issues have retired significant schedule risks to launch and stabilized schedule performance, they have not been able to overcome the 17 weeks of schedule pressure identified two years ago.
“The Navy and the shipbuilder concluded last month that a delay in the launch would allow the shipbuilder to complete the remaining critical path work and allow for increased outfitting to most economically complete the ship. The ship is expected to be 70 percent complete at launch, well prepared for subsequent shipboard testing.
“Ongoing design and new technology development during the construction process caused delays in material procurement, manufacturing and assembly.
“First-of-class producibility issues [that impacted the schedule included] the use of thinner steels which caused difficulties with structural erection; new processes for advanced coating systems; and qualification of new material components. The shipbuilder recommended a delay in launch in order to accomplish greater completion levels prior to launch and thereby enable the lead ship to be completed most economically. The Navy agreed.
“As reported by the Navy previously in its December 2011 CVN 78 Selected Acquisition Report, the Navy projects a most likely total ship end cost of $12.887 billion. This includes the cost of construction, government furnished equipment, and design funding of $3.3 billion for non-recurring engineering which is the investment in the 11 ship class design (not just the lead ship of the class, CVN 78). Current shipyard construction cost estimates are consistent with this Navy estimate from 2 years ago.”
The U.S. Navy’s future carrier aircraft launch system concluded a unique test event today earlier than planned. The Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment Program Office (PMA-251)’s Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, (EMALS), completed shared generator testing at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. EMALS is replacing the current steam catapult system on aircraft carriers, beginning with the Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78)
With EMALS, the aircraft is attached to a shuttle that is propelled down the length of the catapult track by an electromagnetic field produced by the linear motors. The motor generator stores the system’s energy in the inertia of its rotor and releases that energy upon initiation of the aircraft launch....
EMALS consists of six subsystems working together and sharing components to power the four catapults on the ship. The test site only has one catapult so, up to now; the system has only had to control one launcher.
After completing the system functional demonstration phase in November 2012, the EMALS team readied the site to replicate a four-catapult ship environment. The testing simulated generator-sharing for multiple catapults by launching dead-loads, or weighted sleds....
...EMALS is designed to expand the operational capability of the Navy’s future carriers to include all current and future carrier air wing platforms – lightweight unmanned to heavy strike fighters.
It delivers necessary higher launch energy capacity; substantial improvements in system maintenance; increased reliability and efficiency; and more accurate end-speed control. The system’s technologies allow for a smooth acceleration at both high and low speeds, increasing the carrier’s ability to launch aircraft with less stress on the ship and its systems.
NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. – In late October, 16 Sailors from the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) became the first in the fleet officially trained to operate the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS).
The initial 10-day training was created for senior leadership either directly involved with launching operations or who perform supervisory duties from CVN 78′s V-2 who maintain the ship’s aircraft launch and recovery equipment.
These members of the ship’s pre-commissioning crew learned the ins and outs of EMALS during classroom instruction and the realistic experience of launching aircraft, under normal and abnormal scenarios, via simulation at contractor General Atomics’ (GA) Ship Set Control Lab in San Diego.
EMALS Training Lead Terry Hotz suggested candid feedback from senior leadership attending the initial training session would be instrumental for improving the curriculum for future sessions, adding many of those receiving the training will be right there to support the initial check-out process and shipboard testing.
The entire effort to provide the critical training for EMALS has been one of collaboration, Hotz explained. Personnel from PMA-251, GA, the Future Aircraft Carrier Program Office (PMS-378) and the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training (CNATT) combined efforts to ensure the training curriculum is comprehensive and robust.
Five more training sessions will convene at Lakehurst between early 2015 and mid-2016, using the EMALS test site, where operators and maintainers from CVN 78 as well as CNATT instructors and Carrier and Field Service representatives will get up close and personal with the technology. Some of those courses are specifically slated for Electrician’s Mates and Interior Communications Electricians; rates that Hotz said will see an increase in the number of billets due to the electromagnetic technology employed by EMALS.
EMALS is currently being installed and undergoing numerous subsystem assessments on the path toward shipboard certification. The system is slated to make its debut in the fleet aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), scheduled to deliver in 2016.
Dead-load launches from the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) technology equipping the new Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford (CVN 78) are set to start in late 2015, the US Navy (USN) has confirmed.
At-sea aircraft launches from EMALS are expected to follow in 2016 after Ford 's delivery from Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding business.
An industry team led by General Atomics has developed EMALS as the successor to the venerable C-13 steam catapult installed on all current USN nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. Ford , now in advanced construction at Newport News, is the first carrier to receive the new system. A land-based EMALS prototype at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, has been used to support demonstration, qualification, and reliability growth activities.
Based on linear motor technology, EMALS promises benefits in performance, control, and through-life costs of ownership. For example, it delivers higher launch energy capacity, provides for more accurate end-speed control, brings substantial improvements in system maintenance, and offers increased reliability and efficiency.
According to PMA-251, the Naval Air Systems Command's (NAVAIR's) Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment Program Office, nearly all EMALS' hardware components have now been delivered and installed in Ford .
"CVN 78 is projected to deliver in spring 2016, and at-sea EMALS aircraft launches will begin shortly thereafter," said PMA-251. "Starting in late 2015, the ship is scheduled to launch dead-loads, or weighted sleds, from the system, leading up to manned launches after delivery."
More than 450 manned aircraft launches - involving every fixed-wing carrier-borne aircraft type in the USN inventory - have been completed from the EMALS prototype at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst during two Aircraft Compatibility Testing (ACT) campaigns. ACT Phase 1 concluded in late 2011 following 134 launches (aircraft types comprising the F/A-18E Super Hornet, T-45C Goshawk, C-2A Greyhound, E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, and F-35C Lightning II).
On completion of ACT 1, the EMALS demonstrator was reconfigured to be more representative of the actual ship configuration on board Ford , which will use four catapults sharing several energy storage and power conversion subsystems.
ACT Phase 2 began on 25 June 2013 and concluded on 6 April 2014 after a further 310 launches (including launches of the EA-18G Growler and F/A-18C Hornet, as well as another round of testing with aircraft types previously launched during Phase 1). In Phase 2 various carrier situations were simulated, including off-centre launches and planned system faults, to demonstrate that aircraft could meet end-speed and validate launch-critical reliability.
C’est là que l’on voit vraiment la différence architecturale entre le nouveau porte-avions américain et ses aînés de la classe Nimitz. Baptisé le 9 novembre, le futur USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) vient de quitter la forme de construction des chantiers Huntington Ingalls Industries de Newport News. L’imposante coque, guidée par des remorqueurs, a été transférée vers un quai d’armement, où les travaux se poursuivent. Amarré non loin de l’ancien USS Enterprise (CVN 65), désarmé fin 2012 et qui a rejoint Newport News en vue du démantèlement de ses cœurs nucléaires, le CVN 78 doit effectuer sa première sortie en mer en 2015 et être livré l’année suivante à l’US Navy.
Premier d’une nouvelle génération de porte-avions, appelée à succéder au CVN 65 et aux 10 unités de la classe Nimitz, l’USS Gerald R. Ford mesure 332.8 mètres de long pour 80.8 mètres de large. Prévu pour afficher un déplacement à pleine charge d’environ 100.000 tonnes, il sera armé par 5000 marins et pourra mettre en œuvre 75 aéronefs. Extérieurement, il se distingue notamment de ses prédécesseurs par son îlot, placé très en arrière et adoptant un design totalement nouveau.
Mise à flot du nouveau porte-avions le 11 octobre dernier.
Malgré le climat budgétaire maussade, c’est demain samedi que l’US Navy réalisera un nouveau pas vers le renouvellement de sa flotte de porte-avions avec la cérémonie de baptême du tout nouveau USS Gerald C. Ford (CVN 78). Et c’est la fille du 38e président américain, Susan Ford Bales, qui aura l’honneur de casser une bouteille de « vin mousseux américain » (selon Reuters) sur la coque du futur fleuron devant un parterre d’invités de marque, dont l’ancien secrétaire à la Défense Donald Rumsfeld.
Outil indispensable de la projection de puissance américaine, le CVN 78 a toutefois un prix – 12,9 Md$ selon les dernières estimations. C’est 25 % de plus que prévu, mais l’US Navy s’est engagée à réduire la facture pour les exemplaires suivants, dont la construction est déjà en cours.
Tête de série de sa classe, le nouveau navire à propulsion nucléaire impressionne d’abord par sa taille, même s’il n’est pas plus grand que les porte-avions de l’actuelle classe Nimitz, dont il reprend le même dessin de coque. Mais il intègre surout une série d’innovations censées assurer une capacité opérationnelle bien supérieure à la génération actuelle.
Parmi les nouveautés, on peut signaler :
- L’utilisation de catapultes électromagnétiques (système EMALS pour Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System) plus légers et plus puissants que le système traditionnel à vapeur et mieux adaptés aux drones.
- Des chaudières nucléaires plus puissantes avec un cœur dont l’autonomie est égale à la durée de vie du navire, évitant ainsi des opérations lourdes de rechargement.
- Un pont d’envol redessiné, avec un îlot plus petit (et plus furtif) positionné plus en arrière de façon à dégager une zone d’opérations plus importante.
Autres points forts : l’USS Gerald C. Ford devrait être capable de faire décoller ses avions à une cadence plus rapide (160 sorties par jour, 25 % de plus que la classe Nimitz) et il devrait nécessiter un entretien réduit de 30 % (jusqu’à 12 ans entre grandes visites, ce qui se traduira par une économie éstimée à 4 Md$ sur la vie du navire).
Le nouveau porte-avions en chiffres :
• Propulsion : deux réacteurs nucléaires A1B Longeur : 333 m
• Largeur du pont d’envol : 78 m
• Déplacement : environ 100 000 t
• Vitesse : plus de 30 noeuds
• Equipage : 4539 (un millier de moins que la génération actuelle)
• Parc aérien : plus de 75 avions
• Constructeur : Newport News, filiale de Huntington Ingalls Industries
L’USS Gerald C. Ford, c’est aussi : 3 millions de mètres de cables électriques et 1,2 million de mètres de fibre optique. Et le confort à bord n’a pas été oublié. Grâce à des réserves d’eau plus importantes, l’équipage aura désormais le droit de faire couler l’eau pendant toute la durée de la douche, précision apportée par le contre-amiral Thomas Moore, cité par Reuters.
Le nouveau porte-avions doit entrer en service en 2016. Selon l’écheancier actuel, il sera suivi de l’USS John F. Kennedy (en 2020) et de l’USS Enterprise (2025).
Lindell Toombs, a Newport News shipbuilder with 41 years of experience, applies a protective coating to one of the four propellers on the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). Photo by Chris Oxley
October 3, 2013 - Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced today that the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) has put on significant weight in the dry dock at its Newport News Shipbuilding division with the installation of four 30-ton bronze propellers. At 21 feet in diameter, each propeller spins to push the aircraft carrier through the water. "Installation of the propellers culminates more than 10 months of focused work by numerous trades in support of installing the underwater shafting," said Rolf Bartschi, NNS' vice president, CVN 78 carrier construction. "The configuration of the blades, the weight of the propellers and the extremely tight tolerances required make this a challenging installation. I commend the rigging and machinery installation mechanics for a job well done." Gerald R. Ford's primary hull structure reached 100 percent structural completion in May, bringing more than three years of structural erection work to a close. Work continues on the ship, including the piping and electrical systems and the habitability areas such as the galley and mess spaces. The ship's christening is scheduled for Nov. 9.
Huntington Ingalls Industries announced that the flight deck of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford is complete following the addition of the ship's upper bow section at Newport News Shipbuilding. The upper bow extends the overall length of the carrier to its full size, which is 1,106 feet—equal to a 75-story building lying on its side. Weighing 787 metric tons and comprising 19 steel sections, the addition of the upper bow brings Ford to 96 percent structural completion. The carrier construction team began construction on the upper bow unit in December 2011. Ford has been under construction since November 2009. "Placement of the upper bow gives our entire shipbuilding team a great sense of accomplishment," said Rolf Bartschi, NNS' vice president, CVN 78 carrier construction. "We have now structurally erected the flight deck to its full length." Gerald R. Ford is being built using modular construction, a process where smaller sections of the ship are welded together to form large structural units, equipment is installed, and the large units are lifted into the dry dock. The upper bow unit is the 475th unit erected out of 496 used to build the carrier. It also is the 160th superlift to erect out of the 162 scheduled. It joins the lower bow section that was set into place on May 24, 2012, in the dry dock. The lifts are accomplished using the shipyard's 1,050-metric ton gantry crane, one of the largest in the Western Hemisphere. Gerald R. Ford represents the next-generation class of aircraft carriers. The first-in-class ship features a new nuclear power plant, a redesigned island, electromagnetic catapults, improved weapons movement, an enhanced flight deck capable of increased aircraft sortie rates, growth margin for future technologies and $4 billion reduced total ownership cost compared to a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. The ship is scheduled to launch later this year.
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