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USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future events. It may contain tentative information; the content may change as the event approaches and more information becomes available. |
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| Career (US) |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | 2006 |
| Laid down: | est. 2009 |
| Launched: | |
| In service: | est. 2015 |
| Status: | Currently in Design and Development stage |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | appx. 100,000 tons |
| Length: | 1,092 feet (332.84m) |
| Beam: | 134 feet |
| Propulsion: | 2 x A1B reactor |
| Speed: | 30+ knots |
| Range: | Essentially unlimited |
| Endurance: | Limited only by supplies on board |
| Complement: | 4,660 |
| Armament: | Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile Rolling Airframe Missile Close-in weapons system(CIWS) |
| Aircraft carried: | More than 75 |
USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is to be the lead ship of her class of United States Navy supercarriers. The ship will be named after the 38th President of the United States, Gerald R. Ford, which the Navy announced on January 16, 2007.[1]
Ford is scheduled to be laid down in 2009, concurrently or nearly so with the commissioning of USS George H. W. Bush. Construction work has begun; on August 11, 2005, Northrop Grumman held a ceremonial steel cut for a 15-ton plate that will form part of a side shell unit of the carrier. The schedule calls for the ship to join the U.S. Navy’s fleet in 2015. Ford is slated to replace the current Enterprise, ending her 50-plus years of service with the United States Navy.[2]
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In 2006, while Ford was still alive, Senator John Warner of Virginia proposed to amend a 2007 defense spending bill to declare that CVN-78 "shall be named the U.S.S. Gerald Ford."[3] The final version signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006[4] declared only that it "is the sense of Congress that ... CVN-78 should be named the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford."[5] Since such "sense of" language is typically non-binding and does not carry the force of law,[6] the Navy was not required to name the ship after Ford.
On January 3, 2007, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced that the aircraft carrier would be named after Ford during a eulogy for the president at Grace Episcopal Church in East Grand Rapids, Michigan. [7] Rumsfeld indicated that he had personally told Ford of the honor during a visit to Ford's home in Rancho Mirage a few weeks before Ford's death. This makes the aircraft carrier one of the few U.S. ships named after someone still living. Later in the day, the Navy confirmed that the aircraft carrier would indeed be named for the former president. [8] On January 16, 2007, Navy Secretary Donald Winter officially named CVN-78 the USS Gerald R. Ford. Ford's daughter, Susan Ford Bales, was named the ship's sponsor. The announcements were made at a Pentagon ceremony attended by Vice President Dick Cheney, Senators Warner and Levin, General Guy Swan III, Bales, Ford's other three children, and others. [9]
The USS America Carrier Veterans Association (CVA) had pushed to name the ship USS America.[10] The CVA is an association of sailors who served aboard USS America (CV-66), which was decommissioned in 1996 and scuttled in 2005.
The Ford-class carriers will also be incorporating new aircraft launch technologies, such as the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System.
- ^ Navy Names New Aircraft Carrier USS Gerald R. Ford - Official Announcement from Secretary of the Navy
- ^ Navy CVN-21 Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress Retrieved 8 December 2006
- ^ United States Library of Congress. Congressional Record, S5815PDF, Senate Amendment 4211. Retrieved December 5, 2006.
- ^ Defense Link News Article. President Signs 2007 Defense Authorization Act. Retrieved December 1, 2006
- ^ United States Library of Congress. House Resolution 5122, Section 1012 (p. 292). Retrieved December 1, 2006.
- ^ C-SPAN's Capitol Questions. Sense of Congress. Retrieved December 5, 2006.
- ^ http://www.ford.utexas.edu/grf/Funeral/rumsfeld.asp
- ^ Next Navy aircraft carrier to be named for late President Gerald Ford, buried Wednesday Retrieved 3 January 2007
- ^ http://www.gvsu.edu/ford/index.cfm?id=64CE86AD-B639-5F3E-1D2A21C288593229
- ^ Dujardin, Peter, Skirmish erupts over naming of new carrier, Newport News Daily Press, October 25, 2006. Retrieved December 5, 2006
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| Gerald R. Ford | Unnamed (CVN-79) | Unnamed (CVN-80) |  |
| List of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy | |