Editors' Pick|37,593 views|Aug 5, 2020,11:35am EDT
Ten Performance Gains The Ford-Class Carrier Will Deliver That A Nimitz Never Can
Loren Thompson
The USS Gerald R. Ford is the lead ship in a new generation of large-deck, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. Like every other major effort to transform U.S. Navy warfighting capabilities, the Ford has been criticized for taking too long, costing too much, and not living up to its advanced billing.
If these complaints have any validity, it is because the Ford design introduced two dozen new technologies into a vessel that looks similar to the Nimitz class of carriers it will replace.
But looks are deceiving. The Ford class is so different from what came before that it is hard to keep track of all the ways in which it will out-perform the carriers populating today’s operational fleet. Naval expert Craig Hooper, a Forbes contributor, calls it “an audacious technological gamble,†which aptly captures the challenge of building such a warship.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2020/08/05/ten-performance-gains-the-ford-class-carrier-will-deliver-that-a-nimitz-never-can/#3e18a68d1347
