Depending on which news report you listen to, the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford either can’t reliably land planes and is continuing in its dubious status as a “$13 billion berthing barge,” or, more optimistically, it may be ready to deploy sooner than expected. Which is correct? Only time will tell. It is possible that both are right.
Not only is the Ford the world’s largest aircraft carrier, and the largest warship ever constructed in terms of displacement, she is also the most expensive and one of the most delayed. Commissioned in 2017, her first deployment is expected to be sometime in 2022.
The Navy is also taking a very different tack regarding airpower. They are outfitting certain amphibious assault ships as “Lightning Carriers,” a sort of hybrid aircraft carrier flying the Marine Corp’s F-35B Lightning II short take-off and vertical landing stealth strike-fighter planes. The Lightning fighters can be carried on the new America-class amphibious assault ships or the older Wasp-class ships.
When configured as a Lighting carrier, the ships can carry up to 26 F-34B fighters. How many fighters are aboard is also a function of the configuration of other aircraft. When the USS America recently completed operations with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, the ship carried 13 Lightning fighters to allow room for the ship’s complement of MV-22B Ospreys.
What is appealing about the Lighting carrier concept is that the ships can be relatively quickly configured as either big deck amphibious assault ships, light carriers or something in between. As a carrier each can carry approaching 40 percent of the firepower of a larger Nimitz or Ford Class carrier.
The ability to shift between configurations makes them less predictable. US Marine Corps Commandant General David Berger said, “You would like to see one of those big decks one time go out with two squadrons of F-35s and next time fully loaded with MV-22s and another MEU with a 50-50 combo. Now that’s how you become unpredictable. How do you defend against that?”
The Navy and the Marines have one fewer Lightning carriers than they had planned. The USS Bonhomme Richard had just undergone a $250 million upgrade to become a Lighting carrier when it was gutted in a dockside fire last summer. In December, it was announced that the ship was damaged beyond repair and would be scrapped.
F-35B Lightning II Vertical Landing and Takeoff Aboard the USS Wasp
No arresting wire, no catapult. A big improvement. As long as they are easier to fly and maintain over the harrier, America will finally have done something right.
The bigger the ship the bigger the target!
They are really just an arrogance. The source of many needless human casualties.
How hard is it to make a lift work? It is a design that went back to WWII.