{"id":61598,"date":"2025-10-31T23:10:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T22:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=61598"},"modified":"2025-11-09T21:32:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T20:32:20","slug":"the-gerald-r-ford-class-the-worlds-largest-aircraft-carriers-seen-from-the-inside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/10\/31\/the-gerald-r-ford-class-the-worlds-largest-aircraft-carriers-seen-from-the-inside\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gerald R. Ford class, the world's largest aircraft carriers, seen from the inside"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The large aircraft carriers of the United States Navy are exceptional ships because of their enormous size and capabilities.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/01\/07\/the-images-of-the-largest-aircraft-carrier-in-the-world-sailing-off-the-spanish-coast\/\">The images of the largest aircraft carrier in the world sailing off the Spanish coast<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/05\/12\/this-is-how-the-worlds-largest-aircraft-carrier-sets-sail-from-norfolk-naval-station\/\">This is how the world's largest aircraft carrier sets sail from Norfolk Naval Station<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p><strong>Currently, the largest of these aircraft carriers is the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78)<\/strong>, the first of its class and the largest ship of its type in the world, with a length of 337 meters, slightly smaller than the USS Enterprise (CVN-65), which measured 342 meters long. <strong>The Ford was laid down on November 13, 2009, launched on October 11<\/strong>, 2013, and commissioned into the U.S. Navy on July 22, 2017.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54893338064_db9aa38005_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54893338064_49ee4342ca_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Ford is a colossal ship capable of carrying more than 75 aircraft<\/strong>, a small air force that the United States can deploy anywhere in the world alongside a Carrier Strike Group (CSG) consisting of five or six escort ships (including a cruiser and several destroyers). <strong>Its embarked air wing consists of F\/A-18E\/F Super Hornet fighters<\/strong>, EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, E-2D Advanced Hawkeye early warning aircraft, and Seahawk helicopters. <a href=\"https:\/\/cnnespanol.cnn.com\/2025\/10\/25\/eeuu\/plataforma-combate-armada-portaaviones-caribe-trax\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">For the time being, the ship does not yet operate F-35C stealth fighters<\/a>, pending the necessary modifications to be able to use them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54893315148_bc67eb16af_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54893315148_f0438ca380_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Ford is the world's first aircraft carrier equipped with magnetic catapults<\/strong> for launching its aircraft. The ship has four in total, two at the bow and two more on the angled flight deck. Furthermore, <strong>its flight deck is larger than that of the Nimitz-class carriers<\/strong>, thanks to a smaller island located further aft. <strong>Like the Nimitz class, the Ford class consists of nuclear-powered ships<\/strong>. CVN-78 has a propulsion plant with two Bechtel A1B nuclear reactors, smaller but more powerful than those of the Nimitz class.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54893338049_5d22d673e3_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54893338049_03f206f411_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Currently, only the USS Gerald R. Ford is operational. The USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) is being equipped<\/strong> and is expected to be commissioned into the U.S. Navy in March 2027, while <strong>two other aircraft carriers, the USS Enterprise (CVN-80) and the USS Doris Miller (CVN-81)<\/strong>, are under construction and are planned for commissioning in 2029 and 2032, respectively. In addition, <strong>the construction of two more ships, the William J. Clinton (CVN-82) and the George W. Bush (CVN-83)<\/strong>, is already planned. These ships will gradually replace the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54893338044_c4f53e307c_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54893338044_dbcdb6ee18_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you want to know more about these ships, today <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Aitelly\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AiTelly<\/a> <strong>has published an interesting video showing what these large aircraft carriers look like inside<\/strong> and explaining how they work:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Inside US Biggest Nuclear Aircraft Carrier | Gerald R Ford\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j26ppRiUBe0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Photos: U.S. Navy.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The large aircraft carriers of the United States Navy are exceptional ships because of their enormous size and capabilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11545],"tags":[25660,18571,319,25658,12907,13226,12726,25659],"class_list":["post-61598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-navy","tag-george-w-bush-cvn-83","tag-gerald-r-ford-class","tag-us-navy","tag-uss-doris-miller-cvn-81","tag-uss-enterprise-cvn-80","tag-uss-gerald-r-ford-cvn-78","tag-uss-john-f-kennedy-cvn-79","tag-william-j-clinton-cvn-82"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}