Fwd: Newest Aircraft Carrier

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: November 26, 2014 at 9:23:52 PM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Newest Aircraft Carrier

From: Eddie Jung  
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2014 9:28 AM
To: Eddie Jung
Subject: Newest Aircraft Carrier

 

This our new aircraft carrier. The statistics are absolutely mind boggling. The United States is building its next generation of aircraft carrier, the FORD-class carriers. The U.S. Navy gave us access to photograph construction of the USS Gerald R. Ford . The numbers behind the USS Gerald R. Ford are impressive; 224 million pounds, about 25 stories high, 1,106 feet long, and 250 feet wide. But the sheer enormity of the ship and construction operation is hard to grasp until you're nearly face-to-metal with the massive military beast. 100 years of carrier design is built into every facet of the new ship. The Ford will handle up to 220 takeoffs and landings from its deck every day. Part of that quick turnaround is because, when aircraft like the new F-35 return for maintenance, the plane's network will already have alerted ground crews to what's needed so they can get the aircraft on its way faster than ever before. The new FORD-class aircraft carrier will be the largest, most lethal ship ever when it joins the US fleet in 2016. The scope of the ship's construction is hard to fathom, but that chain is made up of links weighing360-pounds each. It's the weight of the chains that immobilize the 224 million pound carrier. All that weight starts up here in the "Bulbous Bow" that displaces the ship's center of gravity, allowing her to cruise on just the energy required for a much smaller ship. This bow alone is more than three stories tall and weighs 116,000 pounds. It has a nuclear power plant. Using "Big Blue" — the largest crane in the Western Hemisphere — towering 235 feet above the shipyard. Big Blue can lift nearly 2.5 million pounds at a time and is essential for assembling the new class of ship. Ships this big have to be built in dry docks like this; twenty-two-hundred-feet long and 250 feet wide. The Ford is designed to accept technology that won't be seen for decades. Some of those advancements are expected, but most are as far-fetched as the Navy's newest drones were in 1963. Regardless of what the future brings, all of it will require more power, which is why the Ford will generate three times the energy of Nimitz-class carriers. The paint applied to the Ford actually isn't paint, but a "high solids coating" that lasts longer and doesn't break down as quickly. Acres of canvas to cover the hull when it applies the coating. Moving the island house (the control tower) back further on the ship will accommodate an increased launch rate for the 75+ planes that will live aboard the carrier. The Ford will be capable of launching and receiving up to 220 planes a day. That increased rate comes in part from replacing the steam-generated catapult systems like those on the USS Abraham Lincoln shown here, with an electromagnetic system that's more efficient and gentler on the multi-million-dollar jets. Even with the extra fuel and weapons needed to keep that pace, the Ford is equipped to remain at sea without replenishment for months at a time. Now they use 3D design technology. With a pair of these 3D glasses designers are able to see exactly how everything fits together in a virtual environment. The 3D system also allows engineers to assemble the ship in modules. These modules can be exchanged and modified over the carrier's lifetime. Inside a module like S/L3609, the electronic workstation could be removed and relocated along with the interior walls and floors. These were all permanent fixtures on previous carriers. It's lethality comes in many forms — like the weapons aboard the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The Sea Sparrow Missile also factors into lethality with its ability to fly four times the speed of sound, turn on a dime, and intercept anti-ship missiles more than 30 miles out. Ford's lethality is also enhanced by the RIM 116 short-range defensive surface to air missile...... ...... and the radar-guided, rotating 20mm Gatling Gun called the Phalanx CIWS (Sea-Wiz). That lethality aims to help keep sailors safe and the enemy less so.