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Even though the US Navy has not specified the exact operating areas of the Ford CSG during its current deployment, USS Gerald R. Ford will continue the carrier presence in the Mediterranean Sea, which the US began in December 2021 ahead of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022

The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group left Naval Station Norfolk in the afternoon of Tuesday May 2, 2023 for its first global deployment, USNI News reports.

According to ship spotters, first-in-class USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) sailed down the James River into the Atlantic around 3:30 p.m.

Commander Capt. Rick Burgess said that the deployment of the Ford CSG will operationalize a new series of technologies aboard the carrier.

“This ship and crew are actively reshaping the face of our Navy’s capabilities and strengthening the future of naval aviation,” he said.

Even though the US Navy has not specified the exact operating areas of the Ford CSG during its current deployment, defense officials have told USNI News that Ford will continue the carrier presence in the Mediterranean Sea, which the US began in December 2021 ahead of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

“Our presence at sea throughout the deployment will provide reassurance to our allies and partners that sea lanes will remain open, and our joint operations will demonstrate our commitment to interoperability and maritime stability,” Rear Admiral Greg Huffman, the commander of Carrier Strike Group 12, said in a Navy news release.

The deployment of Ford, its escorts and the embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8 comes almost six years after the carrier’s commissioning.

Burgess highlighted the training in the lead-up to this deployment. Last month, the Ford CSG finished its composite training unit exercise (COMPTUEX), which prepared the carrier, its escorts, and air wing for the deployment.

The 1,106-foot carrier’s new electromagnetic-powered aircraft launch system (EMALS) and the advanced arresting gear are two of the much-touted technologies unique to Ford-class carriers. EMALS uses stored kinetic energy and solid-state electrical power conversion to propel an aircraft along a track and off the carrier, while the arresting gear is a turbo-electric system designed for more controlled deceleration of aircraft.

The technology, the Navy said, means the air-wing can get into the air — and return to the battle after rearming and refueling — faster than with the traditional steam-and-hydraulics systems that have been the mainstay for decades.

According to The Virginian-Pilot, in total, the strike group deployed with more than 6,000 sailors across all platforms.

The strike group includes Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 12 staff, Gerald R. Ford, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8, Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 2 staff and units, Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60) and an information warfare commander.

The ships of DESRON 2 are the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Ramage, USS McFaul and USS Thomas Hudner, which are scheduled to depart their homeports of Naval Station Norfolk and Naval Station Mayport, respectively, Tuesday.

The squadrons of CVW-8 embarked aboard Gerald R. Ford are the “Tridents” of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 9, the “Bear Aces” of Airborne Command and Control Squadron (VAW) 124, the “Rawhides” of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VRC) 40 located in Norfolk.

The “Ragin’ Bulls” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 37, the “Blacklions” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 213, the “Golden Warriors” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 87, the “Tomcatters” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 31, all of Virginia Beach, will deploy with the airwing, as well as the “Gray Wolves” of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 142 located in Whidbey Island, Wash., and the “Spartans” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 70 located in Mayport, Florida.

Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Riley McDowell / U.S. Navy

‘As sturdy and reliable as they’ve been, by the time they’re put out to pasture, they’re pretty well used up,’ Andy Burns, Naval Flight Officer

American aircraft carriers at their peak are the queens of the high seas, outclassing even America’s nearest peer competitors. They’re the anchors of US seapower, and have a commensurate price tag, costing billions of dollars to build and thousands of sailors to man.

But even the proudest US Navy ships reach the end of their service life and must be decommissioned.

The question is: would it be possible to “mothball” aircraft carriers instead of scrapping them to allow the Navy to expand quickly if the US needs more flattops?

‘No, it wouldn’t,’ Andy Burns, former US Navy Surface Warfare & Naval Flight Officer, says on Quora.

‘For one thing, mothballing something the size of a carrier is really, really pricey. Ships can’t simply be “put on the shelf,” but have to be extensively corrosion-proofed, preserved, and maintained to prevent deterioration.

‘The bigger problem is that it’s cost prohibitive to mothball a nuclear plant. Defueling and preserving a plant is extremely expensive and time consuming, and bringing one back online is even more so. Carrier plants aren’t really designed to be refueled more than once in their fifty-year service life. It’s a very lengthy and invasive process, that involves cutting giant holes in several decks to get at the reactor. The mid-life refueling overhaul carriers get takes almost five years typically.’

Burns concludes;

‘And then there’s the point that carriers are old by the time they’re finally decommed. Fifty+ years of salt-water sailing throwing planes off the roof and catching them is a hard life for a ship. Nimitz was commissioned during the Ford administration. Even the newest boat in the [Nimitz] class, GHW Bush, is already 14 years old. As sturdy and reliable as they’ve been, by the time they’re put out to pasture, they’re pretty well used up.’

Photo by YouTube via USNI News

USS Nimitz is the first active US Navy carrier in the Fleet to reach this milestone. USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has the next highest total of arrested landings at 326,600

USS Nimitz (CVN-68), the oldest-serving US commissioned aircraft carrier in the world, successfully completed its 350,000th arrested aircraft landing while sailing in the South China Sea, a milestone nearly 48 years in the making.

According to a US Navy press release, Nimitz is the first active US Navy carrier in the Fleet to reach this milestone. USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) has the next highest total of arrested landings at 326,600.

Capt. Craig Sicola, commanding officer of Nimitz, and Cmdr. Luke Edwards, commanding officer of the “Fighting Redcocks” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 22 piloted the landing in an F/A-18F Super Hornet from VFA-22 on the morning of Apr. 22, 2023.

“I am honored and humbled to land this historic milestone for our ship. I dedicate this landing to the countless naval aviators who have flown before me, and it is a privilege to further the proud tradition of service that this distinguished aircraft carrier embodies,” said Sicola. “To the shipyard maintenance teams who put in countless hours to prepare this warship for sea, to the thousands of dedicated Sailors on board who sacrifice for their country, and to the families back home who support us along the way – ‘teamwork is a tradition’ on Nimitz and we could not have accomplished this mission without the steadfast commitment to this historic ship.”

As first in its class, Nimitz is the namesake for all Nimitz-class aircraft carriers in the Fleet. Over the decades, tens of thousands of Sailors have embarked on Nimitz to fulfill missions around the globe. Since commissioning nearly 50 years ago, Nimitz has sailed 30 deployments and served in countless operations and missions.

Nimitz serves as the flagship of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group (NIMCSG). The NIMCSG is currently on a regularly-scheduled deployment in the US 7th Fleet area of operations.

“As we sail through the South China Sea, we celebrate this once in a lifetime achievement, 350,000 arrested landings, over a hundred years of innovation in the U.S. Aircraft Carrier, and the determination, sacrifice and winning spirit of all past and present Naval Aviators and our Sailors” said Rear Adm. Christopher Sweeney, commander, Carrier Strike Group 11. “This landmark is a testament to the nation’s commitment to fly, sail and operate around the globe promoting peace and security just as “Old Salt – the NIMITZ” has done for the past 48 years.”

The 350,000th trap represents a significant moment in the history of the ship. Nimitz’s first arrested landing was conducted in 1975, the same year of the ship’s commissioning. Capt. Bryan Compton, Nimitz’s first commanding officer, made history by completing the first landing.

Although the ship has sailed in several oceans and has homeported in multiple locations, the constant throughout the decades has been the tenacity of the ship’s crew day in and day out – without which not a single landing could have been possible.

“Although aircraft are critical to our mission, the aviators and maintainers that fly and operate our aircraft are truly the reason for our success,” said Capt. Christopher Hurst, commander, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17. “This milestone showcases our Sailors’ precision and operational excellence to execute hundreds of thousands of landings on Nimitz.”

Nimitz’s aircraft launch and recovery equipment (ALRE) division is responsible for operating and maintaining the ship’s catapults and arresting gear.

“We have been looking forward to achieving this milestone for a long time,” said Chief Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Equipment) Robert Reed, leading chief petty officer of ALRE division. “The Sailors made all of this possible by manning our equipment and ensuring the proper execution of our mission. Their dedication and determination is inspiring, and I am proud to be a part of team Nimitz. This landing could not have been done without their commitment to the ship.”

Before celebrating the historic 350,000th arrested landing aboard Nimitz, flight deck personnel quickly got back to work. Sailors reset the arresting cable, taxied aircraft out of the landing area, and reset the deck – there were still more aircraft to land. Mighty Nimitz had to get ready for trap number 350,001.

As already reported, the 48-year-old USS Nimitz will leave service in 2026, one year later than last year’s plan, the US Navy revealed in its latest long-range shipbuilding plan.

According to the plan Nimitz will remove a year-long buffer between Nimitz and the decommissioning of carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

USS Nimitz was ordered in 1967 as a development of the ten-year-old USS Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear powered aircraft carrier. Although dimensionally smaller than the Enterprise, the Nimitz Class use fewer but more powerful nuclear reactors, have a higher displacement, and operate roughly the same number of aircraft. Like the Enterprise, the use of nuclear reactors allowed the carriers’ superstructure to be much smaller, with no need for large funnels, allowing greater space on the flight deck. USS Nimitz was launched in May 1972 and, after extensive trials, commissioned in May 1975. USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) and USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) both followed within five years. As told by RAF Museum, originally, they were classified as attack carriers, but with the commission of the Carl Vinson this changed to a combined attack and anti-submarine role.

Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Hannah Kantner, Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joseph Calabrese / US Navy

K-314 Captain Vladimir Evseenko did not agree since the incident had caused no loss of life or the submarine itself. “We even managed to kick out the ‘enemy’ for a long time,” he pointed out

On Mar. 21, 1984, while US Navy Battle Group Bravo sailed southerly courses toward the Tsushima Strait into the Yellow Sea during Exercise Team Spirit 84-1, Soviet submarine K-314, a Victor I-class attack boat, collided with USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) aircraft carrier while surfacing.

According to Naval History and Heritage Command, the collision occurred at 2207, about 150 miles east of Pohang, South Korea, in the Sea of Japan, near 37º3’N, 131º54’E. Captain David N. Rogers, on the bridge, felt a “noticeable shudder, a fairly violent shudder,” and he and the starboard lookout saw the outline of the sub’s sail moving away from Kitty Hawk, the sub failing to display navigation lights.

RADM Richard M. Dunleavy, Director, Carrier (CV) and Air Stations Program, later noted that during the previous three days, the sub was detected by helos launched from Battle Group Bravo “and killed more than 15 times,” the Victor I initially being sighted on the surface 50 nautical miles ahead of the carrier’s intended course before submerging, on Mar. 19.

Then on Mar. 21, K-314 rose to a depth of just 10 meters after having lost track of USS Kitty Hawk due to bad weather.

Through the periscope, Captain Vladimir Evseenko discovered that the entire USS Kitty Hawk CSG was only 4 to 5 kilometers away. More alarmingly still, the Americans and K-314 were heading towards each other at full throttle.

Evseenko gave an immediate order to submerge, but it was too late. K-314 and USS Kitty Hawk collided.

“The first thought was that the conning tower had been destroyed and the submarine’s body was cut to pieces,” Evseenko recalled. “We checked the periscope and antennas – they were in order. No leaks were reported, and the mechanisms were ok. Then suddenly another strike! In the starboard side! We checked again – everything was in order…. We were trying to figure out what happened. It became clear that an aircraft carrier had rammed us. The second strike hit the propeller. The first one, most likely, bent the stabilator…”

The only option for K-314 was to surface and showing themselves to the Americans. As its sailors were waiting for emergency tow ships, the Soviet submarine immediately received visit from several U.S. Navy aircraft which inspected K-314 from above.

“We immediately launched two helicopters to see if we could render any assistance to them but the Soviet sub appeared to have suffered no extensive damage,” said Kitty Hawk’s commander, Captain David N. Rogers.

K-314’s propeller was heavily damaged as a result of the collision. Kitty Hawk instead had a huge hole in its bow, causing several thousand tons of jet fuel to leak into the sea; by sheer miracle, it did not explode.

Luckily, nor did the nuclear weapons on board the Soviet and American vessels detonate.

Close escorted by a US Navy frigate for part of the route, the Soviet Submarine was towed to the nearest Soviet naval base.

For USS Kitty Hawk, exercise Team Spirit was over: the aircraft carrier in fact made its way to the port of Subic Bay for repair.

According to Russia Beyond, the Americans blamed the Soviet submarine captain for the incident, and the Soviet Naval command concurred. Vladimir Evseenko was suspended from the post of captain and continued his service on land.

Evseenko could not agree with such verdict, since the incident had caused no loss of life or the submarine itself: “Everybody was lucky. We didn’t sink, no one got burned.”

“We even managed to kick out the ‘enemy’ for a long time,” he pointed out.

Photo by U.S. Navy

The US Navy will decommission two nuclear aircraft carriers back-to-back and two Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships will go up for foreign military sale

According to the US Navy’s latest long-range shipbuilding plan, the service will decommission two nuclear aircraft carriers back-to-back and two Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships will go up for foreign military sale.

The 48-year-old USS Nimitz (CVN-68) will leave service in 2026, one year later than last year’s plan. Nimitz was commissioned in 1975 and built for a 50-year service and after a planned 13-month service life extension will squeeze at least one more deployment from the first-in-class carrier.

The US Navy said its plan to extend Nimitz is part of a five-and-a-half-month maintenance availability that will carry the carrier into May 2026, the service said in an Apr. 18, 2023 statement to USNI News.

Breaking Defense told last week that Nimitz will travel to Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)’s Newport News Shipbuilding to begin the deactivation process at the Virginia shipyard after its last deployment.

Nimitz‘s decommissioning will follow the former USS Enterprise (CVN-65), which was decommissioned in 2012.

USS Nimitz was ordered in 1967 as a development of the ten-year-old USS Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear powered aircraft carrier. Although dimensionally smaller than the Enterprise, the Nimitz Class use fewer but more powerful nuclear reactors, have a higher displacement, and operate roughly the same number of aircraft. Like the Enterprise, the use of nuclear reactors allowed the carriers’ superstructure to be much smaller, with no need for large funnels, allowing greater space on the flight deck. USS Nimitz was launched in May 1972 and, after extensive trials, commissioned in May 1975. USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) and USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) both followed within five years. As told by RAF Museum, originally, they were classified as attack carriers, but with the commission of the Carl Vinson this changed to a combined attack and anti-submarine role.

As told by USNI News, according to the plan Nimitz will remove a year-long buffer between Nimitz and the decommissioning of carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

If Ike will not undergo a similar service life extension, it will leave the fleet in 2027 and likely join Nimitz at Newport News, along with at least one, if not two carriers in overhaul and new carriers Enterprise (CVN-80) and Doris Miller (CVN-81) that are under construction at the Virginia yard.

The US Navy also said that according to the long-range shipbuilding plan it wants to retire two Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) ahead of their 25-year expected service lives.

USS Jackson (LCS-6) and USS Montgomery (LCS-8), commissioned in 2015 and 2016, respectively, are now marked for foreign military sales as part of the decommissioning plan.

Since the Navy is focusing the Independence-class ships on mine countermeasure missions means the service said it only needs 15.

LCS is a fast, agile, focused-mission platform designed for operation in near-shore environments yet capable of open-ocean operation. It is designed to defeat asymmetric “anti-access” threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft. The LCS class consists of two variants, the Freedom variant and Independence variant.

According to the US Navy, the Independence Variant features a unique trimaran construction is unique to the US Navy and lends the ship some unique characteristics. Its flight deck is the largest of any current surface combatant, and its hangar bay is able to hold two MH-60 helicopters.

Photo by U.S. Navy