Navigation Brief
ALEXANDRIA – Good Evening, Drifters
This week I had the wonderful opportunity to go check in on the carrier Gerald R. Ford, which is in the VACAPES doing some aircraft testing.
I wrote a longish story about the trip that published earlier this afternoon, and you can read that here:
The carrier Ford is trying to shake years of controversy and find its groove
The photography is by yours truly, so do have a look. I’m particularly fond of a couple of the pictures.
But I digress.
As with any long story, I had a ton of stuff I’d like to have included but couldn’t quite mange to find a spot for it. For those of you who have been with The Drift since the beginning, I started this little Odyssey by saying that I wanted the email to be like a dispatch from my notebook. And while I’ve strayed from that idea from time to time, I figured this would be a great opportunity to go back to the beginning.
So, without further ado, here’s a bunch of notes from my trip to Ford, hopefully in a coherent, readable format.
Let’s Drift!
DBL
From Onboard the Ford
During my underway on Ford, I discussed the difference the redesigned flight deck makes. The major visual difference between Ford and the Nimitz class is the island has been moved back to create more space on the flight deck.
They’ve used the extra space to create the functional equivalent of a NASCAR pit, where the airplanes can get refit, refueled and rearmed before heading back into the sky.
Here’s what Air Boss Cmdr. Mehdi Akacem described the upgrade:
The Quote: “We've got [10] percent more real estate up there, and we think the layout of the flight deck with the island further aft – sort of a pit row approach, we call it the corral – with the advanced weapons elevators and in-deck fueling stations, it really brings the weapons and the fuel to the point of need. It allows us to taxi aircraft out of the landing area, park them once and immediately let the squadrons get to work fixing the maintenance gripes, rearm, refuel and turn strike aircraft around more efficiently.
“On Nimitz class, typically some fraction of your aircraft park and them have to get moved closer to the place where they can get more fuel so we can unlock the giant Jenga game that is the flight deck.”
Capt. J.J. Cummings put it more succinctly.
The Quote:"The aircraft carrier has three main functions: get fuel to the aircraft, get bombs to the aircraft and get them up in the air. And the design of the flight deck up there, we believe, is designed in such a way as we're going to be able to do that exceptionally fast."
Training and Manning
In my article, Akacem described the difficulties in developing maintenance procedures, periodicities and best practices. But getting underway and working through issues live has been invaluable.
The Quote: “We're learning, the documentation is being refined. There are places where the steps and procedures aren't perfectly clear, and we're at the hip with the technical subject matter experts so we can sometimes refine those things in days.
“Really over the couple weeks, we’re in the salt air, we’ve got skid marks on the nonskid: It’s starting to feel like an aircraft carrier and the intangible of that is really valuable.”
Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James Geurts emphasized that over the next year those issues would be worked out.
The Quote: “That's one of the main goals of the post-delivery test and trials: Make sure we shake out all the training and testing elements. Make sure we have all the publications right, all the procedures right. We've got the systems out here: We're testing to make sure its performing like we expect it, and then we're training to figure out where we have training gaps.
“My view is we need to get this ship ready not for Nimitz-class missions, we need to get it ready for the Ford class – getting all the potential available in this ship. Sometimes there is this view, 'Well, we have to make it as good as Nimitz.' No, it's going to be so much more.”
F-35
Geurts said getting the F-35 integrated on to Ford shouldn’t be a huge challenge. But it’s not insignificant either. Here’s what he said.
The Quote: "The only real issue is when do we do the unique [things for F-35]: Battery storage, some additional classified spaces, some of the datalink requirements, jet-blast deflectors. There nothing where we have to go [fundamentally] redesign the ship for F-35. There are some things we have to go tailor."
Innovation
There are a couple of cool things I didn’t really know about the Ford that I learned on my embark. One is that the ship won’t have to make as much wind to catch and recover aircraft. That’s pretty neat. I’ll let Capt. Cummings explain.
The Quote: “We can [launch] in lighter winds, and we can recover in lighter winds, which is huge. In the [Persian] Gulf, in the summer, there ain't a lick of wind: You're hauling ass ... which eats up sea space [then you have to turn around] and hull ass back in the other direction.
“And we are also less predictable so if we're in the wind and we're hauling ass, they know where we're going: being in the wind is when it's most dangerous for a carrier. If we minimize our time in the wind, that makes us much more lethal.”
The other really interesting thing I probably should have known but didn’t is that the ship’s electrical system has lots of excess power for future weapons. Again, Cummings explains.
The Quote:"We only use a portion of our electrical power, so innovation in the Navy? This is where it lives, right here on Gerald R. Ford. Because we have the ability to power up future weapons systems. We have the ability to catch and recover aircraft that don't exist yet. We have a flight deck that is exceptionally innovative and will transform how we recover, refuel, maintain and reload aircraft to get them back in the air quickly.”
And that’s all.
Now on to The Hotwash.
The Hotwash
Some big news in the Pacific, if only because it’s a good start: Land-based ISR for the Navy.
Ace Defense News intern Chiara Vercellone explains:
Excerpt: Two new U.S. Navy drones arrived in Guam over the weekend for their first mission in the Pacific region, expanding the reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities in the area, the service said in a Jan. 27 news release.
The MQ-4C Triton drones, manufactured by Northrop Grumman, will serve as part of an early operational capability to develop a concept of operations for the high-altitude, long-endurance systems, according to the Navy.
“The inaugural deployment of Triton UAS brings enhanced capabilities and a broad increase in Maritime Domain Awareness to our forward Fleet commanders,” Rear Adm. Peter Garvin, commander of the Patrol and Reconnaissance Group, said in the release.
Read the rest here: US Navy’s first Triton drones arrive in Guam
This recalls an earlier article based on a study by friend-of-The-Drift Bryan McGrath, where he and his co-author Seth Cropsey take the Navy to task for failing to have adequate ISR/T in the Pacific. Read about that here:
Report calls out US Navy for surveillance and targeting shortfalls
More Reading
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Paul was on the same trip, different story: USS Ford Plans New Aggressive Training Schedule At Sea
Navy Trying Again On CHAMP Auxiliary Design, After White House Pushback
New CNP meets Navy Times: Meet the Navy’s barrier removal guy
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