Navy’s Super Laser Weapon Aircraft Carrier
America’s newest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, is the $13.3 billion largest and most expensive warship commissioned due to rising tensions in the Pacific and provides certainty for the use of aircraft carriers in future wars.
It makes flying easy with a spacious five-acre deck and equipped with new operating technologies that will make it the most powerful in the world through 2050 and beyond. The ship is capable of servicing four squadrons of fighters and an assembly of support and tactical aircraft — more than 60 aircraft in all, although it can accommodate as many as 90. Its air power exceeds that of at least 60 nations, and hosts many more stealth fighters. than is found in all the Russian armed forces.
The ford aircraft carrier displaces 97,000 tonnes. That is certainly 32,000 tons heavier than the largest warships of World War II. But the carrier is still moving fast, thanks in part to a pair of state-of-the-art A1B nuclear reactors that provide almost three times the power of existing American supercarriers, around 300 megawatts of electrical power overall, according to the Navy. It also makes an aircraft carrier this heavy can move at a speed of 34 miles per hour.
But the carrier is under threat from China’s new anti-ship missiles, capable of maneuvering at hypersonic speeds above Mach 5, which is rendering Ford and the entire Naval Pacific Fleet look obsolete. It does so in the same way that technology emerged in World War II when squadrons of attack aircraft—deployed by Japan to sink the most powerful US and British warships, these new missiles have the potential to destroy the most advanced ships currently sailing the seas.
This raises serious concerns in the Congressional Research Service about the survivability of Navy surface ships in potential combat situations against adversaries, such as China, who are armed with large numbers of UAVs and anti-ship missiles.
While Russia also has hypersonic weapons, China is most concerned about the Navy. The country has aggressively increased the size of its naval fleet in the last decade and has developed several anti-ship weapons – including highly maneuverable hypersonic missiles capable of reaching Mach 10. This seems to highlight the fact that these Chinese weapons are meant to repel US aircraft carriers.
China comes at a crucial time for the region. The country claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea, which extends thousands of miles from its own shores. The territorial line is highly contested; International law recognizes territorial claims only 12 nautical miles offshore. America’s allies in the region rely on our naval presence to maintain free shipping lanes, said Jason Lyons, a retired Marine and former CIA officer. That puts the Pacific Fleet within range of Chinese anti-ship missiles and drones without the ability to reliably defend itself or counterattack; None of the fighters operating aboard the Ford carriers, such as the FA-18 Super Hornet and F-35C Joint Strike Fighter, were capable of counterattacking targets further than about 700 miles. That would create new problems for the US Navy.
The Ford and similar ships have anti-missile defense batteries, but none are capable of protecting them in the protracted battle against China’s newest weapons. To maintain dominance in the Pacific—to keep its ships afloat—the Navy is using a new technology unattainable for decades: lasers. The benefits are tantalizing. Powered by a massive fuel source—Ford’s gigantic nuclear reactor as needed—lasers fire at the speed of light, negating the speed of hypersonic weapons; they can recharge quickly to fend off swarms of drones; and they don’t need ammunition stores, giving ships almost limitless shooting opportunities.
That’s the Navy’s hope, at least. Defense contractors have only recently been testing low-power lasers—one even shot down a drone earlier this year—but a reliable laser with enough power to deter hypersonic missiles is still years away. Nevertheless, the Pentagon has such confidence in new technology that this year, it canceled studies of two other promising weapons, rail guns and special guided-launch projectile weapons, which it hoped would defend its fleet against modern attacks.