PCU Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), the first ship of the Gerald R. Ford class, was chris-tened this past November at Huntington Ingalls Industries Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va. To date, the design is 99 percent complete, 95

percent of the material has been procured, 72.2 percent of the construction has been completed, 6.57 million feet (of 9 million feet) of cable has been installed, and the ship is in the water. When CVN 78 is officially delivered to the fleet in 2016, she will carry out her mission with greater lethality, survivability, joint interoperability, and at a reduced operating and maintenance cost to taxpayers than her predecessors of the Nimitz-class carriers.

While recent concerns of cost overruns on the first ship of the class have brought increased scrutiny, it is important to remember why the Navy chose to design and build a class of ship that will have a lifes-pan of 94 years and remain in ser-vice until 2110. The Ford class will deliver increased capability—at sig-nificantly reduced operating costs—and will remain at the forefront of a long-standing approach to countering threats and providing U.S. military presence in support of a wide variety of security objectives.

CVN 78 is a total redesign of the Nimitz class. The Ford class brings a 33 percent increase in sortie generation rate; a completely redesigned flight deck that uses a NASCAR-like concept to recover, rearm and refuel high-end aircraft capable of high sortie rates; a completely redesigned, more efficient and more powerful nuclear-propulsion system, greatly reduc-ing the requirement for steam, hydraulic and pneumatic pip-ing systems, along with the manpower necessary to maintain

them; a multifunction radar suite that will detect and engage the most advanced threats; and revolutionary launch and recovery systems that contribute to more efficient flight oper-ations while reducing total operating costs and stress on the aircraft. Together, these efforts will reduce manning by more than 600 billets, improve operational availability and capabil-ity, and reduce total ownership cost over its 50-year service life by $4 billion compared with Nimitz class carriers.

The Navy and the contractor have learned a great deal during the design and development of this new class of carriers. Engineering and cost saving analyses are being conducted daily, and these lessons learned are being imple-mented to reduce the costs of delivering the Ford, as well

as the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79). It will take less man hours to build CVN-79 than the last Nimitz class carrier, CVN 77, and the ship will be at least $1 billion dollars less than CVN 78. This learning process has developed an affordable and sustainable path forward for the remainder of the class. O

neW FoRd class Will incRease capaBility While Reducing opeRating costs.

For more information, contact NPEO editor Brian o’Shea at briano@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for

related stories at www.npeo-kmi.com.

ReaR admiRal thomas mooRe

pRogRam executive oFFiceR

peo aiRcRaFt caRRieRs

the aircraft carrier Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) Gerald R. Ford (CvN 78) is moved to Pier 3 at Newport News Shipbuilding. [Photo courtesy of Huntington ingalls industries/by Chris oxley]

Program executive officer aircraft carriers

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Program executive officer aircraft carriers

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