Aircraft carrier Ford embarks with full air wing for first time By Diana Stancy Correll

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Sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford taxi an F/A-18E Super Hornet. (MC2 Jennifer A. Newsome/Navy)

The aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford is operating with a full carrier air wing for the first time as part of its Composite Training Unit Exercise, known as COMPTUEX, ahead of a full-length deployment later this year.

While roughly 80 percent of the air wing embarked on the ship during the carrier’s brief 2022 deployment, Ford is now operating with all of Carrier Air Wing 8 during COMPTUEX to allow its crew to navigate flight deck and hangar bay operations with more aircraft than ever before.

“That’ll give us an opportunity to continue to refine how we’re going to manage the flight deck, how we’re going to operate, and get the aircraft off and back on safely,” Rear Adm. Greg Huffman, commander of Carrier Strike Group 12, told reporters March 3.

The expansive training exercise, which kicked off on March 2, is required to certify for deployment while aiming to integrate carrier strike group elements as a cohesive force, according to the Navy.

The Ford’s build design, meanwhile, places its command center for flight-deck operations — and the ship as a whole — further aft than Nimitz-class carriers, freeing up additional space on the flight deck so the air wing has more aircraft ready at any given point. Such changes, coupled with the new technology installed on the ship, were designed to support a 30-percent higher sortie generation rate, according to the Navy.

The crew expects to conduct an unprecedented level of sorties during COMPTUEX, during which time personnel will focus on streamlining flight operations and executing smooth approaches, according to the Ford’s commanding officer Capt. Paul Lanzilotta.

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With new technology and much more space on the Ford's flight deck, Carrier Air Wing 8 is able to generate sorties at a much higher clip.

By Diana Stancy Correll

“By virtue of the exercise, we will fly more sorties than we have before,” Lanzilotta told reporters. “It just ... comes down more in the lane of human performance than a notion of a technology being a magic tool that will give you a higher sortie rate.

“When an airplane starts an approach, will it successfully complete that approach with an arrested landing? That’s a teamwork thing,” Lanzilotta continued. “My equipment needs to work. ... Pilots need to fly a good approach. So, I want to see that improved from starting today all the way through the next few days.”

Lt. Cmdr. Galen Ober, assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 37, conducts preflight checks of an F/A-18E Super Hornet on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford March 7. (MC2 Nolan Pennington/Navy)

Likewise, Lanzilotta said there are logistical elements to sort out, given the increase in the number of assets that require planned and corrective maintenance.

Additionally, the ship’s CO said there are hundreds of new sailors who, since fall, have joined the Ford’s crew and must acclimate to how the ship differs from Nimitz-class carriers.

“We have to work on the human performance side of moving those aircraft day, night, nice weather, bad weather, high seas, calm seas, thunderstorms,” Lanzilotta said. “And we have to find those friction points, and then we need to learn how to do that when we’re fighting.

“It comes down to people. We can talk about technology day in and day out. But the things that make this [work] happen to be humans with beating hearts.”

Testing New Technology

Huffman said that the carrier strike group will target communications and operations, as is typical during COMPTUEX, but personnel are also slated to test new ways to utilize some of the new technology on the Ford, such as the dual-band radar system that was specifically designed for the new carrier class.

“We’re kind of setting up the playbook for how the rest of the class will then be able to start operating, so that when the [aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy] and subsequent ships come out, they will already have kind of a deep understanding of ... how we can operate this weapons platform,” Huffman said.

The dual-band radar system is one of 23 new technologies installed aboard the carrier. It combines two radars that previously managed air traffic control, air search, navigation, and fire-control — all while significantly reducing manning needs.

A view from the cruiser Normandy of the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford and the destroyers Thomas Hudner, Ramage and McFaul. (MC2 Malachi Lakey/Navy)

“That’s a very different system than what’s on a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier,” Huffman said. “And that has some different capabilities that we want to explore ... and see where we can be complementary with our cruisers and destroyers.”

The carrier also features a new Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, or EMALS, to propel aircraft from the flight deck, dramatically reducing manning needs compared to the steam-powered catapult systems on Nimitz-class carriers. The new system faced scrutiny amid delays and cost overruns, but Huffman is confident with its operational capability.

“There’s always been a focus on the launch and recovery equipment. I think we’re in a great place with that right now,” he said. “We just need to go out and prove that it’s ready to go.”

The carrier strike group is also utilizing a live-virtual-constructive environment during the exercise, a system that joins live exercises with the virtual variety.

Huffman described the live-virtual-constructive component as a “foundational” part of the COMPTUEX training period, and said the Navy has worked to expand such capabilities in recent years as a means of enhancing training.

Such was the case in 2021, for example, when the sea service tested modern warfighting concepts through live and virtual exercises as part of the “biggest exercise we’ve done in a generation,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said at the time.