According to a recent report by CNN (CNN), the most advanced USS Ford aircraft carrier, the US Navy, has departed from Norfolk, Virginia, and headed to the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean -related waters for the first time. The Ford will then conduct joint exercises with 20 ships, , 60 aircraft and 9,000 combat personnel from nine countries including Canada, France, Germany, etc. to test the ship's performance. The Ford has been delayed for four years since its planned deployment in 2018. It is still unknown when it will be able to carry out normalized global deployment.
(the first deployed aircraft carrier Ford)
As the new generation of aircraft carrier of the US Navy, Ford class is planned to build 10 ships by 2058 to replace the current main Nimitz class aircraft carrier. Following the first ship "Ford" and the No. 2 "Kennedy", the U.S. Navy has begun to build the No. 3 "Enterprise". As the new generation of main aircraft carrier , the "Ford" class adopts many revolutionary new technologies, including high-power integrated nuclear reactor , DBR active phased array radar, a ship-wide integrated power control system, a new weapon and ammunition lift, and the most distinctive electromagnetic catapult and blocking system . However, the plan always cannot keep up with the changes. Despite the support of a series of "black technologies", it has been in a state of slump due to its low reliability for a long time. The new electromagnetic catapult and blocking system, power system, and weapon and ammunition lift cannot work normally for a long time, which ultimately led to the deployment time of the Ford being delayed again and again.
(Ford, which was trained in the Atlantic Ocean on April 13, 2022)
In addition to the first deployment of the Ford, which was postponed for nearly five years, the US Navy's shipbuilding journey has also been quite bumpy in the past 20 years. The "science fiction warship" - "Zumwalter" class destroyer has only been built, but it has stopped working due to the cost-effectiveness problem; after many years of construction of LCS littoral combat ship , there are still many reliability problems that have been repeatedly broken. Not only has it not played any practical role, it also costs hundreds of millions of maintenance costs every year, so that the US Navy has begun to retire these "bottomless pits" in advance in recent years. Almost without exception, the major shipbuilding projects that the U.S. Navy has faced the dilemma of difficult labor in recent years.
(The former "science fiction giant ship" - " Zumwalter " can only be stationed in ports for many years)
Looking back at the US Navy before the 21st century, it was a completely different grand occasion. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the total size of the US Navy's ships reached 529, of which the main combat ships include but are not limited to 15 aircraft carriers, 200 destroyers, and 33 strategic nuclear submarines . After dismantling the number one imaginary enemy of the Soviet Union, this huge maritime force naturally dominated the global ocean.
(The "golden age" of the US Navy in the more than ten years after the Cold War)
The deep reason for this dilemma is the recession of the US domestic shipbuilding industry. Since the Reagan administration came to power in the 1980s, it has begun to implement a new economic policy of "big markets, small governments", and the recession of the US shipbuilding industry has also begun to emerge. In 1981, under the new policy of the Reagan administration, commercial shipyards in the United States lost government subsidies, and commercial shipbuilding orders gradually flocked from the United States to the cheaper shipbuilding industry rookies in Japan and South Korea, which was undoubtedly a fatal blow to the domestic commercial shipbuilding industry in the United States.
(The new economy during the Reagan period brought a huge blow to the US shipbuilding industry)
At the same time, the concept of "peace dividend" began to prevail. To put it simply, rest and develop the economy in peacetime. Although the original intention of the "peace dividend" is to seek economic development, in the actual implementation over the years, it has become to reduce the production capacity of the local shipbuilding industry. After experiencing the double baptism of the Reagan administration and the "peace dividend", only 4 and 16 remain, with the scale being reduced by more than half.Moreover, the 20 remaining shipyards are incomparable to the shipyards that built a number of aircraft carriers and destroyers and during the Cold War. The equipment is aging and the technology is backward. Therefore, the large ships of the US Navy are under extremely low efficiency in construction, maintenance and upgrading.
(this one of them can build aircraft carriers)
As for the Ford aircraft carrier, electromagnetic catapult did not even pass the land test before it was launched. It almost completed the launch service in a "duck-up" manner. After that, it delayed the deployment for 4 years due to continuous rework and maintenance. Faced with the dilemma of the US Navy, the US think tank also called on the US government to introduce a Ship Act similar to the Chip Act to save the decadent shipbuilding industry. However, the 40-year development route of "focusing on finance and neglecting entities" has caused the US shipbuilding industry to have a lot of problems. It may take the next 40 years to achieve the goal of revitalizing the shipbuilding industry.
