What You Need to Know: USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) represents the pinnacle of modern aircraft carrier design, but the ship’s significant costs, complex maintenance and vulnerability concerns raise doubts about the future of supercarriers.

-Although nuclear-powered carriers offer virtually unlimited range, their massive size and complexity make them high-value targets susceptible to a variety of threats, including cyber attacks. Additionally, disposal of these nuclear giants at end-of-life is costly and time-consuming.

-Some argue that the Navy should consider updating its conventionally hardened aircraft carriers or expanding its fleet with more versatile and cost-effective America-class amphibious assault ships, especially for operations in the Indo-Pacific.

Is the USS Gerald R. Ford the Last of the Navy’s Nuclear Supercarriers?

USS Gerald R. Ford CVN-78, the newest and largest nuclear-powered supercarrier ever built, has finally set sail and returned for an extended deployment. The battleship is the lead ship of a new class of United States Navy aircraft carriers that will replace aging ships. Nimitz– class on a one-to-one basis in the coming years.

Featuring greater automation that allows the ship to operate with a smaller crew, the CVN-78 is also among the most advanced warships ever built. The largest warship ever built in terms of displacement, the USS Gerald R. Ford is an impressive ship that would likely serve the same purpose. power projection All over the world for the next decades.

But despite being full of new and innovative technologies, problems persist with many systems not working exactly as planned. From the ship’s regularly clogged toilets to malfunctioning ammunition elevators; Many systems have had serious teething problems that need to be resolved. Given these issues, it would be easy to dismiss the carrier as a huge money pit in the water and even suggest that CVN-78 is actually a bad carrier.

The bigger question is whether the Gerald R. Ford class will be the end of the road for true aircraft carriers.

The Century of Aircraft Carriers

It’s worth noting that it’s only been about a century since the United States Navy first began using aircraft carriers, and many naval leaders at the time still viewed the battleship as the dominant surface combatant. Fast forward and today no one is using anything close to the size of battleships and the closest is the aging of Russia Soviet-era battle cruisers It never quite lived up to its promises.

Simply put, guided missile destroyers can fill the same role as older large-armed warships, while being faster to build, cheaper to operate, and requiring a much smaller crew.

Aircraft carriers may not be so easy to replace. Few warships can do what carriers can do; especially as a floating air base.

But the biggest concern is that a supercarrier could be a really big target. The old fear was from enemy aircraft and submarines, but the threat now includes hypersonic missiles, undersea unmanned vehicles (UUVs), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Low-tech threats also remain a concern, as seen in the suicide attack by suicide terrorists on October 12, 2000. A small boat exploded next to the USS Cole’s.

It doesn’t actually take that much to deal serious damage to such a high value target.

Moreover, systems are now so complex that they can even be targeted in cyber attacks. The question is whether the United States Navy needs such a large floating air base facing so many threats.

Replacement Cycle and Ford Class

The biggest argument against a nuclear-powered carrier is that it is not a truly efficient system. Yes, the range of such a ship is almost unlimited, but its durability is only as much as the food and water it can carry. A ship that can stay at sea indefinitely is fine, until one accepts that it must provide fuel for the planes and food for the crew.

USS during the global Covid-19 pandemic Nimitz (CVN-68) completed longest deployment A carrier that has spent 321 days at sea since the Vietnam War. This was not a good situation for the crew, who had to endure 10 months at sea, but it also put a lot of strain on the ship and required a long maintenance period. Even worse, Nimitz-class carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) stayed on the sidelines for months due to a Covid outbreak affecting more than a third of its crew.

Huge ships with such large crews could be just as susceptible to another outbreak.

There is also the fact that even regular maintenance of these supercarriers takes months, and there is little indication that this can be improved on CVN-78 or another. Gerald R. Ford-grade flat surfaces. Moreover, refueling nuclear reactors during their half-life causes ships to be out of service for years! The United States Navy may have 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in its fleet, but rarely more than five or six are deployed at any given time.

Lifecycle Issues

But the biggest thought as to why these new supercarriers are just a bad idea is that very little planning seems to have been done for their end-of-life. Even cost of building the next ships in the class There are billions of dollars the Navy will have to pay to dispose of these ships if they go down. It was reported that may take more than ten and a half years Completely dismantle and scrap the USS Attempt (CVN-65) will be the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and its price tag could be more than $1.5 billion.

Even if the problems with CVN-65 are resolved, the Navy Nimitznew class carriers Ford…The class will be changed one to one. This problem is unlikely to be fixed by building the latest carriers.

Each may be impressive, but Gerald R. Ford…class carriers take years to build, cost a not-so-small fortune, require major maintenance and take years to dismantle. Maybe it would be wiser to update it. traditionally reinforced kitty hawk -classand complete them with more America-Class amphibious assault ships (LHDs) that would be better suited to a potential war in the Indo-Pacific. Each of these flattops would be cheaper to build, we could build more of them, and they would be easier to retire when the time comes. And these are not a nuclear disaster waiting to happen if a terrorist gets lucky.

Author Experience and Expertise: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a writer based in Michigan. it exists contributed To more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites, with more than 3,200 published articles during his two-decade journalism career. He writes regularly about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics and international relations. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Customs Clearance Works. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. Email the author: (email protected).

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