U.S. Navy Signs $14.9 Billion Contract for Two 100,000 Ton Gerald Ford Class Supercarriers

In an attempt to modernise its fast ageing aircraft carrier fleet, the United States Navy has signed a $14.9 billion contract with American shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls for two Gerald Ford Class supercarriers. The Gerald Ford Class has long been criticised for its immense cost, coming at well over double the cost of its predecessor the Nimitz Class which had the same displacement and deployed the same number of aircraft. By purchasing the two warships simultaneously however, the Navy can expect to reduce the overall cost of the acquisition by $4 billion. The U.S. Navy is currently the only service in the world to field supercarriers - and the Gerald Ford Class ships are by far the most modern carrier types in the world with state of the art sensors, propulsions systems, and perhaps most notably an electromagnetic catapult system which allows them to launch heavier and better armed vessels than any other carrier warship.

Gerald Ford Class Supercarrier

The first Gerald Ford Class ship, USS Gerald Ford, entered service with the U.S. Navy in 2017 - bringing the size of the supercarrier fleet to 11 ships alongside 10 older Nimitz Class vessels. The Ford Class ships are expected to deploy a number of state of the art new aircraft, including the latest variants fo the E-2 Hawkeye and C-2 carrier onboard delivery aircraft alongside F-35C light stealth fighters. While the Navy currently lacks a dedicated air superiority fighter due to the retirement of the F-14 Tomcat in 2006 and cancellation of plans for a carrier based F-22 Raptor, a sixth generation carrier based air superiority platform designed to surpass the Raptor, the Air Dominance Fighter, is currently under development and can be expected to deploy from the Gerald Ford Class as a heavier complement to the F-35C by the early 2030s.

F-35C Carrier Based Stealth Fighter

The Gerald Ford Class is currently the only supercarrier class in the world to deploy an electromagnetic catapult system, though this could soon change with China’s Type 003 Class ships having tested similar systems. China’s Navy for its part has already tested electromagnetic catapult systems successfully - and unlike the U.S. Navy has a high end carrier based air superiority fighter ready for frontline service. The development of the Type 003 will likely force the U.S. to rush its own new air superiority fighters into service, and will require more Gerald Ford Class ships to be deployed to the Pacific with the Nimitz Class vessels set to be increasingly outmatched by their Chinese counterparts. India and Russia have also expressed interest in acquiring EMALS equipped carriers under the INS Vishal and SHTORM carrier programs respectively - though neither is likely to have the funds and capability necessary to  develop such ships for the foreseeable future.