Friday, March 20, 2015

An Update on the USS Ford, America's Next Aircraft Carrier Class



US Navy getting Ready to Test the EM Catapult on the Ford:


The Navy is preparing to launch the first ship-board tests of a new Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System designed to replace steam catapults and propel fighter jets and other aircraft off the deck of an aircraft carrier, service officials said.

“In June, we’ll start shooting dead loads into the James River. The ship is pointed bow out. It will be the first time in 60-years that we have shot something off a ship using something other than a steam catapult,” said Rear Adm. Thomas Moore, Program Executive Officer, Carriers.

The EMALS system, which uses an electromagnetic field to propel aircraft instead of the steam catapult, is slated for the new Ford-class aircraft carriers. The first EMALS system has been under construction for several years aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford, or CVN 78, the first in class of the new carriers expected to deliver to the Navy next year.


There is a flaw in the aircraft landing arresting system which could cause a major delay:

A design flaw in the system the Navy plans to help safely recover aircraft onboard its next generation Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) aircraft carrier has set testing for the program back two years and risks extending the delivery of the ship past its March 31, 2016 deadline, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) officials told reporters on Thursday.
The General Atomics built Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) was found to have a design flaw that set testing at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, N.J. back two years, according to the head of Program Executive Officer for Aircraft Carriers Rear Adm. Tom Moore said.

“We are about two years behind where we should be up at Lakehurst in terms of having the systems installed and testing it with real aircraft,” he said.
“Right now my major concern on Ford is AAG. I have to get equipment installed. It’s now all arrived at the shipyard. The shipyard is installing the equipment now and concurrently with that I have to get Lakehurst to start testing the upgraded system.”

The flaw was found in the AAG’s water twister — a complex paddle wheel that is designed to absorb 70 percent of the force when the tailhook of a landing aircraft pulls against an arresting wire to come to a stop.


Jet car testing of the AAG has started and switching out the radar on the Ford class in general:
At almost $13 billion, the cutting-edge aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford (CVN-78) has become a byword for military overruns. With the Ford‘s cost now stable and the costs of the second ship, Kennedy, coming down, however, the Navy seems convinced it’s got the money problem under control. Now they can talk about the fun stuff. But even the fun stuff is hard.

“Jet car testing is underway,” said a straight-faced Rear Adm. Thomas Moore, the Navy’s program executive officer for carriers, in a conversation with reporters Thursday morning.

[...]

On a more mundane level, not having to maintain leak-prone hydraulics should allow cutting at least 600 sailors from the crew and help save $4 billion over the 50-year life of the ship. The only major piece of hydraulics left on the Ford is the elevators that move aircraft between the flight deck and the hanger deck. And they won’t be around on the next ship in the class. Electric elevators will be ready for installation on the Kennedy.

The Kennedy will also have a less expensive and less powerful radar than the Ford. That’s a rare example of a military service reining in its ambitions rather than letting requirements — and the cost to meet them — grow. “A $500 million radar on an aircraft carrier is overkill at this point,” Moore told reporters earlier this week, after speaking at the McAleese Associates/Credit Suisse defense conference.

Originally developed for the DDG-1000 destroyer, the Dual-Band Radar on the Ford will be the finest in the fleet. It’ll also be the only one in the fleet, since even the painfully truncated DDG-1000 program — reduced to just three ships — won’t use the full DBR. Since carriers don’t coordinate their own air and missile defense, a function served by specialized Aegis cruisers and destroyers, Moore says the Kennedy and subsequent Ford-class ships will get by just fine with the same kind of radar that will be used on big-deck amphibious ships, starting with the future LHA-8. That Enterprise Air Search Radar (EASR) hasn’t been selected yet, but any number of off-the-shelf radars would meet the criteria, Moore said, as could a scaled-down version of the Air & Missile Defense Radar being built for the new Aegis destroyers. Accepting less capability, he said, should save at least $180 million per ship.

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