A major milestone has been achieved as USS John F Kennedy has got its hull and flight
deck.
Viewers may note, USS John F Kennedy is the second Gerald R Ford-class aircraft carrier
and is expected to be commissioned in 2020.
It is one of the most expensive military project being undertaken not only in the U.S but the
whole world, with an estimated cost of $12 Billion.
The construction is being carried out by Huntington Ingalls Industries, which is sole designers
and builders supercarrier for U.S Navy.
As per reports more than 3000 shipbuilders and 2000 suppliers from across the USA are
involved in its construction.
The contract for the construction of the ship was awarded in January 2009 and work officially
started two years later.
The keel was laid down on August 2015.
As per Mike Butler, the program director, the building process is ahead of schedule
and there is a probability that the ship could be christened by the end of the year.
In this video, Defense Updates analyzes why USS John F. Kennedy will be the most sophisticated
supercarrier in the world?
Let's get started.
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Nimitz class carriers have been the face of the US Navy and have enabled power projection
far off from the US homeland.
USS Nimitz, the lead ship of Nimitz class was commissioned in 1975.
The Nimitz class has been able to accommodate many new technologies over the decades, but
the Nimitz design has now reached its threshold and this is where Ford-class comes in.
Ford class supercarriers are being built to replace some of the United States Navy’s
existing Nimitz-class carriers.
The first ship of this class is Gerald R. Ford, USS John F. Kennedy is the second one.
USS John F. Kennedy will utilize the latest technological advances and incorporate major
improvements over the Nimitz class.
With USS John F. Kennedy, the US Navy will have two 'state of the art' supercarrier with
another 3 in the pipeline.
USS John F. Kennedy will have several defensive weapons that include two 32-cell RIM-162 Evolved
Sea Sparrow Missile launchers and two RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile launchers.
But the offensive firepower will come from the aircraft onboard.
USS John F. Kennedy will carry around 80 of these but in a war situation the ship could
even carry up to 90 combat aircraft.
Nimitz-class super-carriers got planes moving for takeoff using steam-actuated catapults.
The system required a lot of steam piping, a large condensate return, and tons of fresh
water.
They also have a lot of maintenance issues.
Plus, with steam-actuation, the majority of the force is being transferred to the airplane
at the beginning of the stroke—in a jolt.
This puts stress on an airframe, and thus reduces the lifespan of the expensive planes.
USS John F. Kennedy will use the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS).
The system uses a linear induction motor with an electric current to generate a magnetic
field.
That field then propels a carriage down a track.
Since the power delivery is linear, it negates the deficiencies of a steam catapult and is
more suitable for future aircraft and drones like MQ-25 Stingray
Four of these EMALS will be present - two will be at the bow will the other two at port-side,
enabling the simultaneous launch of 4 aircrafts
American Nimitz aircraft carriers, the French Charles de Gaulle, the Russian Kuznetsov,
the Brazilian São Paulo, the Chinese Liaoning, and Indian Vikramaditya uses the hydraulic
arresting system which is a dated system and suitable for only traditional carrier based
aircraft.
USS John F. Kennedy will be fitted with Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG).
AAG is capable of working with all current and projected future carrier-based aircraft,
from the lightest unmanned aerial vehicles to the heaviest manned fighters.
The heart of any aircraft carriers are the nuclear reactors which provide the required
power.
The Ford-class has newly designed reactors.
2 Bechtel A1B nuclear reactors will be installed on USS John F. Kennedy
Each one these are capable of producing 300 MW of electricity, triple the 100 MW of each
Nimitz-class vessel.
The huge power supply provides for the legroom, required for future expansions like inducting
Lasers and Electromagnetic Rail Guns.
US Military has been working on these two technologies for some time now.
USS John F. Kennedy will be equipped with the most powerful radar to be ever fitted
in a warship.
It will have an integrated Active electronically scanned array search and tracking - AN/SPY-3
radar system.
The AN/SPY-3 is manufactured by Raytheon and designed for both blue-water and littoral
operations.
In general, ships have different radar for different purposes- like one for scanning
large areas and another for target engagement.
These are integrated by the ship’s combat system.
But AN/SPY-3 is different.
It is a dual-band radar (DBR) that utilizes a multi-tier, dual-band tracker, which consists
of a local X band tracker, a local S band tracker, and a central tracker.
The X band tracker is optimized for low latency to support its mission of providing defense
against fast, low-flying missiles, while the S band tracker is optimized for large area
coverage.
The central tracker merges the two signals to provide a comprehensive situational awareness.
So, the ship’s combat system will receive a single stream of data and won’t have to
merge them, as the radar will itself do that work.
This new system has no moving parts, therefore minimizes maintenance & manning requirements.
The radar helps with the in maintaining the stealth profile of the warship as it has fewer
antennas and is flush-mounted on the superstructure.
Because of better integration, the AN/SPY-3 has faster response time and it better utilizes
the power and bandwidth of the ship.
USS John F. Kennedy has a newly designed deck.
It has 3 aircraft elevators that are more efficient when compared to 4 in Nimitz class
supercarriers.
Reduction in 1 aircraft elevators has freed up space which will enable faster maneuvering
of aircraft in the deck.
With this space for flight deck operations and aircraft maintenance is increased.
There are several other smaller but consequential enhancements.
These changes are expected to significantly improve the sortie rate.
The max sortie rate is expected to be in the region of 160 flights per day for 30 days,
with a surge capacity of up to 270 in one day.
The is will boost the mission handling capacity in a big way.
Ford uses extensive automation and this has jacked up initial acquisition cost.
But this will help to reduce the future operating cost.
For example, Ford-class carriers total of only 2,600 sailors, about 700 fewer than a
Nimitz-class.
Considering the 50 years life span of the carrier, this will translate to billions of
dollars in saving.
This will also mean that there will be a lesser chance of any issue or accidents due to human
errors.
The viewer may note that recently the US Navy has suffered a series of setbacks due to collisions
caused mainly due to human error.
USS John F. Kennedy will be much more nimble and efficient.