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USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) completes the first scheduled explosive event of the Full Ship Shock trials while operating in the Atlantic Ocean on June 18, 2021. US Navy photos
The Navy bombed its newest tanker with thousands of pounds of explosives into the Atlantic on Friday to simulate the ship’s performance in battle conditions, according to images released by the service and government seismic monitors.
The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), which was connected to sensors to measure the effects of the impact, hit the explosion about 100 miles off the Florida coast shortly before 4 p.m. Friday, according to the US Geological Survey, which registered the explosion as a strong earthquake. 3.9 degrees.
“The Class I aircraft carrier has been designed using advanced computer modeling, testing and analysis methods to ensure the ship is robust to withstand battle conditions, and these impact tests provide data used to verify the ship’s shock toughness,” the service said in a statement Saturday. decades, most recently for the coastal combat ships USS Jackson (LCS-6) and USS Milwaukee (LCS-5) in 2016; as well as the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock USS Mesa Verde (LPD-19) in 2008, and the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) in 1990, and the guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay (CG-53) in 1987. The last aircraft carrier to implement the FSST was the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) in 1987.”
Ford commanding officer Captain Paul Lanzilotta told USNI News in March aboard the carrier that the crew was busy preparing for the event.
He said, “That’s a lot of work when you have a ship with 5,000 places, so we have to prepare all our equipment. We will also prepare the crew: so the crew has to know what to expect, they need to practice their damage control procedures because that’s something we need We all have to be good at it, and when we hit the ship we need to make sure we have the ship as ready as possible.”
USGS image records the Ford shock experience as a 3.9-magnitude earthquake. USGS . photo
The trials come at the conclusion of the post-delivery testing and trial period of the tanker on which the Navy worked to prepare Ford for its first deployment.
The carrier was scheduled to do three separate blasts, but the service may put an end to the tests at two, USNI News understands.
The shock test of Ford’s first in class, rather than John F. Kennedy’s second in class (CVN-79), was prompted in Congress by the late Senator John McCain (R-Arizona). He insisted on experiments to prove the reliability of the new carrier class before it was first published.
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