@bd popeye @Obi Wan Russell @Air Force Brat @FORBIN @Jura @Miragedriver @kwaigonegin @dtulsa @vesicles @SouthernSky
The Ford is going to be readied and made operational...but it is not going to be cheap and it is going to take time.
I keep saying this...but it needs repeating.
The ship makes use of numerous NEW TECHNOLOGIES and innovations.
Those are expensive.
Those do not come easily.
The US Navy will take their time to make sure they get them all right, and that they do so as safely as possible.
I do not expect the Ford to become IOC as fast as a Nimitz class now does, not nearly so.
It can't.
New Cats, new Traps, new Reactors, all new main sensors, new spaces, and storage. etc.
They are going to have to rethink and then optimize their procedures for everything that deals with any of those new systems.
So, I expect it to be several months before they do any large air operations. I hope that within three months from now they will have done some...small steps testing to prepare for larger scale air ops. They will go about it very deliberately and very carefully.
So...I expect her to spend another year getting ready, and during that time we will see her at sea 2-3 times, and each time they will do a little more.
Then, they will spend another year getting everything they learn from those experiences together so they can embark and efficiently operate a full air wing.
They will go to sea to do that too....and maybe during that year, towards the end, they will actually make their first official deployment.
Then, the year after that...we are now talking 2019-2020, they may reach IOC. Two years after that, they may reach FOC.
But that is what it is going to take.
...and I am okay with that because we are talking about leap ahead technologies here.
And then, over the next 45 years, she will more than save for everything it took to get us that because she will require 1,000 less personnel on board over that 45 year period. In addition, she will be less maintenance intensive...though they will work out rigorous and acceptable maintenance schedules for her.
While all of this is happening, the second carrier will come online and have to spend less time getting to IOC. Then the 3rd, the USS Enterprise, CVN-80, will even spend less and begin to get to a point where we see these carriers getting launched, trialed, commissioned and reaching operational capabilities in similar time frames as the Nimitz has over the last 3-4 vessels.
But that is what it is going to take folks...and that's okay.
Apply the same rationale to the Zumwalts. There is another class of vessels where Leap Ahead technologies are being employed. Do not exp[ect her to be IOC or FOC like a Burke. It's going to take time, and it is going to cost.
But what we learn from these ships is going to lead to the Tico replacement...and I hope...and if we get a decent, hard driving but navy smart leadership in place for 8 years or more...I expect that the new Tico replacement will look and act a lot like the Zumwalt, but be optimized for Air Defense.
Right now the US Navy is the only nation that can bring together such leap ahead technologies for multiple classes and then build a lot of ships to take advantage of it for the long term
China is trying to get to that stage...but in order to get there, they have to catch up technology wise and operationally and experience wise. And that is going to take a lot of years.
The UK will do some of it...but they simply do not have the infrastructure and industry they at one time did. In some areas, they still do awful dang good stuff. Even with a less capable overall design for the QE, they are loading some very good technology into her...like they did the Darings and the Astutes...but they have had their troubles with it too.
Sadly, the problem is that we have raised generations of kids who are grown adults now and they want to see everything working perfectly right away.
Sorry guys...life is not like that.
That is all...carry on!
