USS Gerald R. Ford Big bad and most expensive Naval ship in the world

USS Gerald R. Ford

Big bad and most expensive Naval ship in the world

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This is the Super carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and it is the biggest Naval ship ever built.

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At 1,106 feet long with 25 decks tall, when it enters the water approximately 100 thousand tons of water gets displaced.

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Over 42 years ago, on May 3rd of 1975, the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) was commissioned as the first “Nimitz class” carrier.

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Pictured above is the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower during Sea Trials before earning its official active duty commissioning (CVN-69 second Nimitz class built).

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July 22nd of 2017 will mark the commissioning into active duty of USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78).
The CVN-78 is the first Super carrier know as the “Ford class” which will replace the older “Nimitz class” carriers.

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To put this in perspective, when the U.S. Navy sends an aircraft carrier to watch-over a country…that country and the rest of the world knows that America isn’t f-n around.
Simply put, the presence of a carrier means air dominance.

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Let’s meet the biggest, baddest and most expensive Naval ship in the world.

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Construction began on August 11th of 2005 in Virginia at the Newport News shipbuilding grounds.

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CVN-78 weighs as much as 400 Statues of Liberty (just under 100,000 tons).

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5 thousand American shipbuilders worked on the USS G. R. Ford.

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In a time of war, the ship can carry 508 officers and 3,789 enlisted crew members for a total of 4,297 humans living on the CVN-78.

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Depending on the size of the aircraft, it will hold at least 75 planes/helicopters (or more).

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Two separate nuclear reactors power the four propellers to a top speed of 35mph.
Each one of the 4 propellers weigh 30-tons (60 thousand pounds).

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The ship produces 15,000 meals a day to feed the floating city.

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Her massive flight deck spans over 5-acres.

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The flight deck is 256 feet wide.

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And spans the length of 1,092 feet for a total of 217,796 square feet.

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Within the carrier are 10 million feet of electrical cables.

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And an additional 4 million feet of fiber optic cables.

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CVN-78 is coated with “Haze Gray” paint.

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200,000 gallons of it…enough to apply 350 coats of paint to the White House.

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“Watch your toes”.

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Building the biggest isn’t cheap. An individual ship costs around 10 billion dollars with an additional $4 billion for research.

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Its an expensive ship but it comes with an estimated lifespan of 50 years.

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More importantly, we know that our U.S. Navy is the most powerful force at sea.

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One of the major changes to the carrier is the new Electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS).

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EMALS causes less of a jerk to the launching aircraft.

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Over time, those harsh jolts take a toll on the F-18s…which costs money.

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Saving money over an expected span of 50-years plays a major part in this vessel.

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Armament includes ESSM (Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile), RAM (Rolling Airframe Missile), Mk-15 Phalanx CIWS (Close-In Weapon System).

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Back to the money topic. We plan to build 10-12 future carriers at around $13 billion each.

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That adds up and leads to the following…

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The down-side of saving money is cutting Navy sailors.

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To be exact, their goal was to cut around 500 humans from operations.

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It’s an unfortunate reality of the world.

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That being said, this is the future…and we own it.

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Congratulations to all who worked their asses off on this project. It ain’t easy to see ahead into the future. That’s what is expected when it comes to building the next generation of our U.S. Navy’s aircraft carriers.