After Saturday’s attack by Hamas, a staunch ally of Israel, the United States pledged support and promised to send a warship soon. But it’s not just any warship: it’s the USS Gerald R. Ford, the most modern North American aircraft carrier.
Dubbed the ‘Military Leviathan’, it is 377 meters long and 78 meters wide, capable of displacing 100 thousand tons and carrying 5 thousand people on board. It travels at a speed of about 30 knots per hour, at a speed of 56 km per hour.
It’s a real city, it runs on nuclear energy, with two reactors inside. It produces (and uses) the same amount of energy that a medium-sized city uses on land.
Ford, named after the 38th President of the United States, will not directly intervene in Israel’s military operations for now. The presence on Israeli shores is merely a symbol, demonstrating the unconditional support of its eternal ally, the United States, and acting as a deterrent to further escalation of violence by Hamas.
The massive ship is normally docked in Norfolk, Virginia and was delivered to the US Navy in 2017.
It has several cutting-edge technologies, such as electromagnetic catapults, instead of steam, allowing planes to fly faster: one every 45 seconds.
It is capable of carrying 90 aircraft, most of them fighters, but also surveillance equipment and helicopters. Currently it is not yet operational with the F-35C, ‘only’ with the ‘Super Hornets’ (F-18E ‘Super Wasp’ fighters and the two-seat F-18F). The latest generation of fighters is not used to avoid further increases in costs: it costs 13 billion dollars, some sources show 14 billion.
Without fighter-bombers it would be a defenseless system, however, Ford still has several short- and medium-range defense systems: ESSM (“Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles”), and RAM (Rolling Airframe Missiles), as well as a modern laser system still in the testing phase.