Fourteen Billion Dollars For The New Aircraft Carrier USS Gerald R. Ford

New Carrier - only 14 billion.

 

 

USS Gerald R. Ford

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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 known 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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It’s 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. ( If we’re not in bankruptcy by then. RTN )

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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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