USS Gerald R Ford – the largest warship in the world – is to anchor in The Solent later this month on her first visit to UK waters.
The Ford-class aircraft carrier will anchor off Stokes Bay, Gosport for the duration of her visit in Mid-November – although the exact dates are unknown at this time.
It’s thought that many other US naval vessels from the carrier’s strike group will also arrive in the Solent and off the coast of the Isle of Wight including USS Ramage, USS McFaul, USS Normandy and USS Thomas Hudner.
Construction on the monster carrier began in 2005 and the keel of the Gerald R Ford was laid down 4 years later in 2009. She entered the fleet in 2012 and was finally delivered to the US Navy in 2017, ahead of being formally commissioned by President Donald Trump in 2017.
It is only now that the USS Gerald R Ford is undertaking her maiden deployment – some 17 years after the first steel was cut. She left the US on 4th October and made her first overseas port visit in Nova Scotia last Friday (28th October).
The ship is named after the 38th President of the United States, Gerald Ford and whilst it may appear similar in design to a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the new Ford-class is much more technologically advanced with a new nuclear plant capable of generating almost 3x the amount of power, with new launch and arresting gear on the flight deck.
So the USA will be ensuring again that the next WW will be fought in Europe, sparing their citizens women and children the horrors that will occur here.
And as last time the USA was the only country to come out of the war richer than when it went in
I am sure that a lot of better people here will have one way tickets to America too
Leaving our not combat citizens to the mercy of the enemy within.
Don’t worry. Some idiot will probably glue themselves to it and it will return to the USA with no arrests. So that’s all right then !
Wish you’d glue your face to your computer screen, then we wouldn’t have to put up with you making the same inane comment on every article.
As a submariner watching HMS Queen Elizabeth arrive at Portsmouth commented…..’I see a target’ Don’t worry about USA not getting involved if there is another war, because old Pinut has ICBMs and so do China and North Korea. Apparently Russia has two back up copies of Pinut on standby.
Worrying times.
I trust Putin more than I do Biden or Sunak
You trust a mass murdering war criminal who has installed himself as “President for life” more than a democratically elected president?
Tell you what, if you admire the bloke so much, why don’t you pee off to Russia?
Do you think war monger Biden is any good
Biden was democratically elected. He won the electoral college and popular vote. He is President of the United States of America because the American people elected him. This is a fact.
Putin is a dictator who has declared himself President for life. This is a fact.
On that basis, and to answer your question, no, I don’t think Biden is a very good President. He’s nowhere near the calibre of urbane and intelligent Obama. He is, however, 10 times better than Trump, and a million times better than Putin.
Should use it to STOP the migrants coming in to UK
Unfortunately not large enough to take them all
They prefer being put up in 5 star Hotels free of charge
I thought Portsmouth was a nuclear free area, still it will boost the local economy by keeping the ladies of leisure fully employed and reinforcements will be seen tottering off the trains during the visit.
Well said Paul I totally agree with you
the immigrant invasion from france could be solved by having one person on each beach in france, with a small gun – who would then shoot a hole in the boat as they carried it to the sea- as it deflates, their ideas of coming to the uk would deflate as well and they would all stand and look at each other, on the beach in front of a deflated boat
And who are these people going to be? The French police or army? The French aren’t really interested in stopping them and, since Brexit, have no duty to the UK to do so, either.
Maybe you could volunteer. We could all laugh our heads off when you are spotted and a Gendarme puts a “small hole” in your head.
Very impressive piece of american hardware. Makes our two carrier’s look like toys.
Yes, and handy if it has to pop over to the Black Sea…
Our 2 carriers are rusting away, planeless
The USS Gerald R Ford cost $12.8 billion (around £11 billion). She displaces 100,000 tones and can carries 75 aircraft.
The two QE class carriers displace 65,000 tonnes, cost £6 billion for the pair and between them they carry 100 aircraft.
There are disadvantages to the VSTOL / ski-ramp system (aircraft carry a smaller payload) but this is offset by the fact that QE and PoW can launch twice as many in the same period of time. Watch a video of Invincible launching during the Falklands war.
The Ford also has two major failure points. If the single “island” is hit, she’s out of the fight. Ditto if her landing area (traps) are hit. QE has 2 islands and an F35B doesn’t need traps.
Oh really I didn’t know any of that I must admit. But America has eleven large carriers which apparently combined have twice the amount of deck space as all the other worlds nations carriers combined.