With praise and a blessing for the military, President Donald Trump helped hand over the USS Gerald Ford to the Navy on 22nd July 2017.
American steel and American hands have constructed this 100,000-ton message to the world.
Susan Ford Bales is the ship’s sponsor and daughter of the 38th president, whom the ship honours.
Some of the USS Ford’s state-of-the-art systems and technology costs hundreds of millions of dollars.
Construction started in 2009 and was to be completed by September 2015 at a cost of $10.5 billion.
The Navy has blamed the delays and budget overruns on the ship’s advanced systems and technology, including electromagnetic launch systems for jets and drones that will replace steam catapults.
The warship also has a smaller island that sits farther back on the ship to make it quicker to refuel, re-arm and relaunch planes, and a nuclear power plant designed to allow cruising speeds of more than 30 knots and operation for 20 years without refuelling.
The vessel completed sea trials in April but still will go through a battery of tests and workups at sea before becoming ready for deployment, work that is expected to cost nearly $780 million and take more than four years to complete.
Docked at Naval Station Norfolk, the USS Ford eventually will house about 2,600 sailors, 600 fewer than the previous generation of aircraft carriers. The Navy says that will save more than $4 billion over the ship’s 50-year lifespan.
The air wing to support the Ford could add more personnel to the ship, which is designed to house more than 4,600 crew members.
The Ford was built at Newport News Shipbuilding, a giant Navy contractor in Virginia.
