by Edward Hunt
This week the Chinese Navy began preparing for major sea trials centred around its newest aircraft carrier, the PLAN Fujian. This is China’s first domestically designed aircraft carrier (universally termed a ‘CV’, for Carrier Vessel or Cruiser Voler if you want to argue the historical particulars), having previously relied on Soviet-era technology. She will have a loaded weight of some 70,000 tons, a length of around 300 metres and carry around 60 aircraft of varying types. For China it is literally unique and will stay so until the launch of newer designs at some stage in the later 2020s.
Concurrently, on 17th September, the United States Ship Gerald R. Ford lowered anchor at Trieste. At a loaded weight exceeding 1000,000 tons, a full keel-to mast height of 76 metres and a length of around 340 metres she is far too large for any kind of docking near the city. She is the flagship – the command vessel – of the US Navy’s 6th Fleet (covering the Mediterranean and based out of Naples) and has recently returned from a cruise that centred on the eastern part of the sea as far as Turkey. After a troubled and abbreviated first effort in 2022, the USS Ford left Virgina in May 2023 for an inaugural full-length tour and will likely not return until sometime in 2024.
The USS Ford CVN (Carrier Vessel, Nuclear-powered) is the largest naval vessel ever constructed. She embarks around 80 aircraft of various types under Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8 and carries a total of 4,000 crew. This allows her to project airpower equivalent to around a third that of the entire Italian Air Force.
However, the vessel has not had an easy introduction. Her cost of around $14 billion was well over budget. Her new electro-magnetic aircraft launch and recovery systems have proven unreliable, while various other automated processes (her crew is 25% smaller than the vessels that she replaced) have caused repeated headaches. For all that, she is one of the most advanced pieces of machinery on the planet. Thanks to her twin nuclear reactors, her deployments are limited largely by supply needs and crew fatigue.
She is designed to brave the worse Pacific storms, manage complex naval engagement between hundreds of vessels, defend against ballistic missiles and be upgraded with advanced laser and rail-gun defences over her – likely – 100-year service. Through the next decade she is to be joined be a further 3 examples: the USS John. F. Kennedy, USS Enterprise and USS Miller, the last named after the first African-American sailor to be awarded the Navy Cross. These new ships are in addition to the current ten Nimitz-class vessels in service, due for slow retirement as the Fords are launched. The US Navy’s carrier fleet is by itself one of the most powerful militaries on the planet.
Unfortunately, it is unlikely many from Trieste will have a chance to visit the vessel. But as an unrivalled piece of engineering – and a source of jealously for the Chinese Navy – it is worth a few moments’ observation and contemplation through the binoculars on the Rive. Meanwhile, the crew will undoubtedly be enjoying their few days’ semi-break in Trieste.
