The USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier, the great US sentinel designed to contain China’s naval power

2023-12-21 12:34:03

Last month, the U.S. Navy’s program manager for Ford-class aircraft carriers revealed that America’s next major warship, the USS John F. Kennedy, will join the Pacific Fleet when it makes its first scheduled deployment to 2025. USS Kennedy is the second aircraft carrier named after the 35th president of the United States. The Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers are the new backbone of the Navy for the coming decades and the first of them is now deployed in the Mediterranean on a deterrent mission and to support Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

The Navy estimates that the ship – almost 90 percent complete at Hill’s Newport News shipyard – will cost $11.3 billion, about 15 percent less than the first ship in its class, the aforementioned USS Gerald R. Ford. More than 4,500 U.S. shipbuilders and 2,000 suppliers have participated in the construction of the Kennedy.

Design and development work on the second Ford-class aircraft carrier began in 2009. When it was christened at Newport News Shipbuilding in December 2019, the USS Kennedy was scheduled to be delivered in 2022. After several delays, it finally appears that it will be delivered in 2025 after making modifications to integrate F-35C aircraft, the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar and solve the problems that the builder had when developing the USS Gerald R. Ford.

According to the US Naval Institute, the USS Kennedy will be the first Ford-class aircraft carrier destined to operate in the Indo-Pacific region, where the United States has directed the bulk of its air-naval force in the face of China’s economic and military rise in the last decade. Capt. Brian Metcalf said the carrier would arrive at its new home port on the U.S. West Coast in two years.

What are Ford-class aircraft carriers like?

The Ford-class aircraft carriers take over from the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, which since the 1970s have projected US naval power on all five continents. Each of the ten current Nimitz aircraft carriers – equipped with two nuclear reactors – displaces about 100,000 tons and can sail at speeds of over 30 knots without stopping to refuel for more than three months.

Despite the success story of these ships, the Pentagon is dedicating its resources to the development of the new Ford class of aircraft carriers.

Unlike the Nimitz, the Fords have a greater electrical energy generation capacity, almost triple that of their predecessors. While the ships of both classes have similar hulls, the Fords introduce up to 25 new technologies, including a new power plant, electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS), Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG), machinery control, radars and systems integrated war. These improvements allow them to launch 25 percent more aircraft. The Ford can fly 160 sorties per day with the capacity to fly 270 in wartime. The National Interest news portal points out that the Gerald R. Ford is “the most sophisticated warship that has ever existed and will soon be joined by the USS John F. Kennedy.”