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| The USS Gerald Ford is Named The Most Advanced Aircraft Carrier |
Washington - The Navy deploys an aircraft carrier, aiming to intimidate opponents with air power off the coast. Basically, an aircraft carrier is a floating airfield that can carry a number of air fleets in the enemy's offshore areas.
The effectiveness of an aircraft carrier is seen from how much it can fly planes over it. One with the largest carrier fleet is the United States, which often creates the latest technology. And the development of weapons technology is also included in it, including their newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford.
Quoted by 19FortyFive, this Ford Class incorporates two dozen of the most recent new technologies. It is reported that the US Navy's newest aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford will be operational from the end of this year.
When it enters service later this year, the USS Gerald Ford will be the largest aircraft carrier in the world. It's not complete to talk about aircraft carriers without discussing the fighter planes on board, citing Defense Security Asia, along with the air fleet that the Ford Class will carry.
According to the US Congress, the USS Gerald Ford will carry more than 70 fighters ranging from 40 to 50 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, F-35. Five EA-18G Growler electronic fighters, 19 MH -60 Seahawk helicopters, four E-2D Hawkeye early warning aircraft and two MV-22B Ospreys.
As it is the newest generation of US aircraft carrier, it will use some of the new technologies on the USS Gerald Ford such as a new nuclear reactor. This aircraft carrier will also adopt the Sortie Generation Rate (SGR), as a support for the fighter aircraft in it.
Sortie Generation Rate (SGR) On the Carrier USS Gerald Ford
Quoted from 19FortyFive, SGR is an aircraft carrier mechanism in facilitating aircraft, such as maintaining, repairing in case of damage and so on. So the USS Gerald Ford has a 33 percent higher SGR and can perform a total of 160 aircraft maintenance per day, reports.
Even the newest US aircraft carrier can maintain 270 units of aircraft when there is a surge, such as in the midst of war conditions. And to improve this SGR, there are two key improvements to Ford, namely the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and the Advanced Arresting Gear System (AAG).
The combination of these two plays an important role in the launch and recovery of US Navy fighter aircraft. EMALS is an aircraft ejection system that replaces the traditional steam piston catapults used by older carriers. The new system relies on an electric current that generates a magnetic field to propel the aircraft along a trajectory.
EMALS is designed to be able to launch the aircraft faster and stronger, thereby reducing stress on the fuselage. Lower cost, lighter weight and less maintenance, than the ancient steam piston ejection system.
With this, EMALS will improve Ford's SGR because it is able to reload faster, and can launch aircraft better and more accurately. Which means that with EMALS, these Ford Class carriers can launch a wider variety of fighters and even drones.
And complement EMALS is AAG, which is a gear restraint when the plane makes a landing. In contrast to conventional hydraulic retaining gears, AAG utilizes an energy-absorbing water turbine, coupled to a large induction motor. With it, AAG will increase control when holding aircraft that make a landing.