The USS Gerald Ford is the world's largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, a groundbreaking
ship the likes of which has never been seen in human history.
Over 1,000 feet (337m) in length, and displacing 100,000 tons, it is the largest warship ever
built by man.
But is the Ford truly unsinkable as some claim, and if not, what would it take?
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Infographics Show- today we're taking a look
at what it would take to sink the USS Gerald Ford.
On the morning of April 7th, 1945 the Japanese battleship Yamato steamed towards the American
task force invading Okinawa.
The largest battleship ever built, the Yamato was the most feared ship in the world at the
time, with 18 inch guns that could launch shells over 26 miles (42km) away.
Japan had spared no expense in its construction, outfitting it with nine 18 inch 45 caliber
guns- largest caliber of naval artillery ever equipped on a warship- each capable of firing
high explosive and armor piercing shells.
The Yamato's second battery consisted of six 155 millimeter guns and twenty four 127 millimeter
guns, as well as 162 anti-aircraft guns for self-defense.
In short, the Yamato packed enough firepower to engage two or three American battleships
at the same time.
Yet once spotted by American recon aircraft on that April morning its fate was sealed-
by the time the day was done the Yamato would fall victim to an American air attack of over
300 aircraft, of which the Americans would lose only 10.
The USS Gerald Ford has drawn many comparisons from skeptical defense analysts to the Yamato-
battleships were powerful and feared weapons of war, and none more so than the Yamato,
but they were already being made obsolete by the time the Yamato was in full operation.
So too these skeptics fear that the aircraft carrier is even now nearing obsolition, and
with a further 10 planned purchases and a 13 billion dollar price tag- if they are right
the Ford and its sister ships could end up being a costly mistake for the United States.
But why do people fear the aircraft carrier is nearly obsolete?
The first answer to that question comes from the evolution of the long range missile.
In World War II aircraft carriers reigned supreme due to their ability to project firepower
far out of range of even the mightiest battleship's guns, rendering them all but obsolete.
So too now do missiles threaten to outrange the aircraft carrier, with modern missiles
boasting ranges of hundreds to thousands of miles while moving at hypersonic speeds.
The second threat to the modern aircraft carrier comes from coordinated attacks by smaller
surface vessels or drones- think swarm attacks.
An aircraft carrier is a very big, bulky ship and it is feared could fall prey to attacks
by massive swarms of unmanned speed boats loaded with explosives, or aerial drones on
a kamikaze mission to sink the carrier.
While well protected from traditional naval or aerial attack, an aircraft carrier is poorly
suited to defend against hordes of small attackers.
So could either of these tactics work?
Just what would it take to sink the USS Gerald Ford?
For a long time the primary threat to a carrier has come from submarines, which are by their
nature extremely difficult to detect and target.
Yet the USS Ford has a speed of about 30 knots (56kmh/35mph), with a classified top speed.
At 35 mph the Ford is already faster than most submarines, and any submarine trying
to speed up to catch the Ford would generate a lot of noise and be very quickly identified
by the Ford's escort ships or numerous anti-submarine helicopters, each loaded with dipping sonar
and depth charges.
While skeptics point to back in 2006 when a single Chinese submarine surfaced amidst
an American carrier group mid-exercise, it is important to note that the carrier and
her escort ships at the time were not actively looking for submarine threats as they had
no reason to.
While this could potentially have been a lethal vulnerability, a Chinese submarine attacking
an American carrier would have been tantamount to a declaration of war, and during war or
during the buildup to the possibility of war, the USS Ford and her escorts would definitely
be actively looking for subs, making it extremely difficult if not impossible to penetrate the
entire battlegroup.
The second threat the Ford would face would be from cruise missile attacks.
Launched from extreme distances most cruise missiles are designed to fly low to the ocean
on a pre-programmed track before 'popping up' to engage their internal targeting radars
and alter course for a hit.
By flying low the cruise missile avoids radar detection, albeit as soon as it 'pops up'
to engage its radar and adjust its trajectory it would give itself away to every radar in
the Ford's battlegroup.
In that scenario the battlegroup's AEGIS cruisers would coordinate a defense of the entire group,
firing salvos of SM6 or RIM missiles to destroy incoming missiles.
With 2 RIM launchers installed on the Ford, and dozens across the rest of the battlegroup,
a cruise missile would need to penetrate several layers of anti-missile defense, each extending
out for tens of miles.
Even if these somehow failed however, each ship in the battlegroup is equipped with CIWS
Phalanx Turrets, chainguns capable of tracking and firing on inbound missiles at over 50
rounds a second- the Ford alone has 3 equipped.
The best way to overcome the Ford's missile defenses would thus be to launch a large volley
of cruise missiles, but cruise missiles have one fundamental weakness- they require a launch
platform, either a ship, submarine, or aircraft.
With the Ford's 90+ complement of combat aircraft and 4 E2D Hawkeye early warning radar planes,
the carrier could cast a protective bubble of surveillance hundreds of miles around the
entire battlegroup.
Easily spotted, there simply exists no naval or air force in the world that could survive
long enough to get in range of a Ford carrier and its battlegroup.
Even during the Cold War Soviet military doctrine dictated the sacrifice of dozens of Tu-22M
Backfire bombers in kamikaze missions against American carrier battlegroups.
Few if any were expected to survive the attempt to attack an American carrier, and the US
was so confident of its ability to defend their carriers that their own military doctrine
dictated the widespread use of carriers in a conflict against the Soviet Union.
Ballistic missiles prove a much bigger threat however, as they can be launched from thousands
of miles away making their launch platforms difficult if not impossible to neutralize
early.
While typically reserved for delivering nuclear weapons to major cities, modern ballistic
missiles such as those developed by China and Russia purportedly have the maneuverability
to alter their course on their descent trajectory and thus accurately target a small, moving
target such as an aircraft carrier.
Yet while touting its arsenal of hundreds of DF-21 'carrier-killer' missiles, these
types of missiles require long and complex 'kill chains' made up of several key links
that make it possible to A) Spot a carrier, B)
identify the carrier, C) track the carrier and D) accurately target a carrier.
These links range from aerial radar platforms, tracking satellites, command and control centers
down to the actual missile itself.
China has to date not shown the capability to master every link in this long and complex
chain, nor its ability to defend these varied assets from attack, which would thus disrupt
their entire capability.
Even so, a Ford's battlegroup is well equipped to defend itself from ballistic missile strikes
as proven by recent tests of the SM6 missile carried by the group's AEGIS cruisers.
While a saturation strike of dozens of missiles would have a good chance of overwhelming the
carrier's defenses, it's unlikely China or Russia could protect the vital communications
and tracking elements needed to guide those missiles in the first place long enough to
actually hit a fast moving Ford Carrier.
The last threat to the American Ford class carriers comes from swarms of drones and speedboats
laden with explosives.
An emerging and very real threat, both of these attacks would require a carrier to be
operating extremely close to hostile shores, something which a Ford carrier would never
do during war time.
A swarm of fast attack boats would likely not have the range to find and then close
with a carrier battlegroup on the open seas, and even if they did they would have to face
a gauntlet of helicopters and escort ships laden with .50 caliber machine guns.
While in simulations swarm attacks against American carriers have proven it can be a
devastating threat, as long as the carrier battlegroup remained outside of coastal waters
it would likely be out of range.
Never ones to leave it up to chance however, American defense companies have already begun
testing and deploying directed energy weapons and other similar systems to protect from
just such threats.
The USS Gerald Ford is the first in the new line of Ford class carriers.
Carrying over 90 aircraft, to include two squadrons of F-35Cs, Ford carriers will be
the most formidable weapons of war ever created.
Yet as technology continues to advance it may be shifting the advantage to smaller,
faster weapons such as anti-ship missiles, prompting a retaliatory arms race in defensive
weapons such as lasers and railguns.
In the end only combat will prove if the Ford class carriers will continue to dominate the
seas for America and its allies just as the Nimitz carriers did before them, or if the
supercarrier has finally seen the end of its days.
Do you agree with our analysis?
How do you think this would all play out?
Let us know in the comments.
Also, be sure to watch our other video called – Smallest Aircraft Carrier In The World.
Thanks for watching, and as always, don't forget to like, share and subscribe, and as
ever, see you next time.