The Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier is a class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers built for the United States Navy to replace portions of the aging carrier fleet. Named after former U.S. president Gerald R. Ford, the class is designed to provide upgraded weapons systems, improved energy efficiency, reduced operating costs, and reduced crew requirements. Key changes include the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG), and a redesigned flight deck. The lead ship, , was commissioned in 2017 with the second ship of the class, , expected to be delivered in 2027.
Design features Carriers of the Gerald R. Ford class have: Advanced Arresting Gear. Automation, allowing a crew of several hundred fewer than the Nimitz-class carrier. Covers the costs of the CVN-21 program, how those are calculated, and where the $5 billion savings on operational costs is expected to come from over the ship's planned 50-year lifetime. The updated RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missile. An AN/SPY-3 X Band multifunction radar and an AN/SPY-4 S Band volume search radar on the lead ship. Designated together as Dual Band Radar (DBR), initially developed for the s. Starting with the second ship, John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), DBR is replaced with AN/SPY-6(V)3 S band multifunction radar and an AN/SPQ-9B X band surface search radar. An Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) in place of traditional steam catapults for launching aircraft. A new nuclear reactor design (the A1B reactor) for greater power generation. Stealth features to reduce radar cross-section. The ability to carry up to 90 aircraft, including the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Boeing EA-18G Growler, Grumman C-2 Greyhound, Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye, Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II, Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopters, Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotors, unmanned combat aerial vehicles, and the future Boeing F/A-XX.
The biggest visible difference from earlier supercarriers is the more aft location of the island (superstructure). The Gerald R. Ford-class carriers will have a reduced whole-life cost due in part to reduced crew size. These ships are intended to sustain 160 sorties per day for 30-plus days, with a surge capability of 270 sorties per day. Director of Operational Testing Michael Gilmore has criticized the assumptions used in these forecasts as unrealistic and has indicated sortie rates similar to the 120/240 per day of the Nimitz class would be acceptable.
Development
The in US naval service have been part of United States power projection strategy since Nimitz was commissioned in 1975."Ship Information". USS Nimitz Homepage. 4 March 2008."Our Ship". USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) Web Page. 4 March 2008. The design has accommodated many new technologies over the decades, but it has limited ability to support the most recent technical advances. As a 2005 RAND report said, "The biggest problems facing the Nimitz class are the limited electrical power generation capability and the upgrade-driven increase in ship weight and erosion of the center-of-gravity margin needed to maintain ship stability."Schank, John. Modernizing the U.S. Aircraft Carrier Fleet: Accelerating CVN 21 Production Versus Mid-Life Refueling. Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 2005. p. 76.
With these constraints in mind, the US Navy developed what was initially known as the CVN-21 program, which evolved into CVN-78, Gerald R. Ford. Improvements were made through developing technologies and more efficient design. Major design changes include a larger flight deck, improvements in weapons and material handling, a new propulsion plant design that requires fewer people to operate and maintain, and a new, smaller island that has been pushed aft. Technological advances in electromagnetics have led to the development of an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and an Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG). An integrated warfare system, the Ship Self-Defense System (SSDS), has been developed to allow the ship to more easily take on new missions. The new Dual Band Radar (DBR) combines S-band and X-band radar.Larrabee, Chuck. DDG 1000 Dual Band Radar (DBR). Raytheon. 1 March 2008.
These advances are intended to allow Ford-class carriers to launch 25% more sorties, generate triple the electrical power with improved efficiency, and offer crew quality-of-life improvements over the Nimitz design.
Flight deck
The movement of weapons from storage and assembly to the aircraft on the flight deck has also been streamlined and accelerated. Ordnance will be lifted to the centralized rearming location via higher-capacity weapons elevators that use linear motors. These elevators are located so that ordnance need not cross any areas of aircraft movement, thereby reducing traffic problems in the hangars and on the flight deck. In 2008, Rear Admiral Dennis M. Dwyer said these changes will make it hypothetically possible to rearm the airplanes in "minutes instead of hours".Keeter, Hunter. "New carrier island is a heart of higher sortie rates for CVN 21". BNET Business Management Network. 4 March 2008.
Power generation The Bechtel A1B reactor for the Gerald R. Ford class is smaller and simpler, requires fewer crew, and yet is far more powerful than the Nimitz-class A4W reactor. Two reactors will be installed on each Gerald R. Ford-class carrier, providing a power generation capacity at least 25% greater than the 550 MW (thermal) of the two A4W reactors in a Nimitz-class carrier. The portion of thermal power allotted to electrical generation will be tripled.
The propulsion and power plant of the Nimitz-class carriers were designed in the 1960s, when onboard technologies required less electrical power. "New technologies added to the Nimitz-class ships have generated increased demands for electricity; the current base load leaves little margin to meet expanding demands for power."
The Gerald R. Ford-class ships convert steam into power by piping it to four main turbine generators (MTG) to generate electricity for major ship systems, and the new electromagnetic catapults. The Gerald R. Ford-class ships use steam turbines for propulsion.
A larger power output is a major component of the integrated warfare system. Engineers took extra steps to ensure that integrating unforeseen technological advances onto a Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier would be possible. The Navy expects the Gerald R. Ford class will be part of the fleet for 90 years, until the year 2105, which means that the class must successfully accept new technology over the decades. Only half of the electric power generation capacity is used by currently planned systems, with half remaining available for future technologies.Schank, John. Modernizing the U.S. Aircraft Carrier Fleet p. 83.
Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System
The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) launches aircraft by means of a catapult employing a linear induction motor rather than the steam piston used on the Nimitz class. The EMALS accelerates aircraft more smoothly, putting less stress on their airframes. The EMALS also weighs less, is expected to cost less and require less maintenance, and can launch both heavier and lighter aircraft than a steam piston-driven system. It also reduces the carrier's requirement for fresh water, thus reducing the demand for energy-intensive desalination.
In a memo from August 2026 that was sent directly to the acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Chao, President Donald Trump called for the removal of the EMALS from all future ships in the class, starting with the USS Doris Miller. If put into effect, the EMALS will be replaced by the steam catapult system currently onboard the Nimitz-Class ships.
Advanced Arresting Gear landing system
Electromagnets are used in the Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) system. The energy absorption is controlled by a turbo-electric engine. This makes the trap smooth and reduces shock on airframes.
Sensors and self-defense systems
Another addition to the Gerald R. Ford class is an integrated active electronically scanned array search and tracking radar system. The dual-band radar (DBR) was being developed by Raytheon, for both the Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyers and the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers. The island can be kept smaller by replacing six to ten radar antennas with a single six-faced radar. The DBR works by combining the X band AN/SPY-3 multifunction radar with the S band AN/SPY-4 Volume Search Radar (VSR) emitters, distributed into three phased arrays.Larrabee, Chuck. "Raytheon Successfully Integrates Final Element of Dual Band Radar for DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class Destroyer". Raytheon News Release. 4 March 2008. The S-band radar was later deleted from the Zumwalt-class destroyers to save money.
The three faces dedicated to the X-band radar handle low-altitude tracking and radar illumination, while the three S-band faces handle target search and tracking regardless of weather. "Operating simultaneously over two electromagnetic frequency ranges, the DBR marks the first time this functionality has been achieved using two frequencies coordinated by a single resource manager."
This system has no moving parts, therefore minimizing maintenance and manning requirements for operation. The AN/SPY-3 consists of three active arrays and the Receiver/Exciter (REX) cabinets above-decks and the Signal and Data Processor (SDP) subsystem below-decks. The VSR has a similar architecture, with the beamforming and narrowband down-conversion functionality occurring in two additional cabinets per array. A central controller (the resource manager) resides in the Data Processor (DP). The DBR is the first radar system that uses a central controller and two active-array radars operating at different frequencies. The DBR gets its power from the Common Array Power System (CAPS), which comprises Power Conversion Units (PCUs) and Power Distribution Units (PDUs). The DBR is cooled via a closed-loop cooling system called the Common Array Cooling System (CACS).
Driven by a need for a lower-cost radar system, the Navy installed the AN/SPY-6(V)3 Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR) starting with the second Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier, , in lieu of the DBR. The EASR suite's initial per-unit cost of about $180 million was less than the DBR, which was about $500 million. The AN/SPQ-9B complements the AN/SPY-6(V)3 EASR.
Possible upgrades
Future defense systems, such as free-electron laser directed-energy weapons, electric armor, and tracking systems will require more power. "Only half of the electrical power-generation capability on CVN-78 is needed to run currently planned systems, including EMALS. CVN-78 will thus have the power reserves that the Nimitz class lacks to run lasers and electric armor." The addition of new technologies, power systems, design layout, and better control systems results in an increased sortie rate of 25% over the Nimitz class and a 25% reduction in manpower required to operate..
New waste management technology will be deployed on Gerald R. Ford. Co-developed with the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, PyroGenesis Canada Inc. was in 2008 awarded the contract to outfit the ship with a Plasma Arc Waste Destruction System (PAWDS). This compact system will treat all combustible solid waste generated on board the ship. After having completed factory acceptance testing in Montreal, the system was scheduled to be shipped to the Huntington Ingalls shipyard in late 2011 for installation on the carrier.
The Navy is developing a free-electron laser (FEL) to defend against cruise missiles and small-boat swarms...
3D computer-aided design Newport News Shipbuilding used a full-scale three-dimensional product model developed in Dassault Systèmes CATIA V5 to design and plan the construction of the Gerald R. Ford class of aircraft carriers.