USS Gerald R Ford:
The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier strike group has arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea amid the Israel conflict with Hamas.
- USS Gerald R Ford is US Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier.
- The ship was named in tribute to Ford, who was president from 1974 to 1977, giving a ‘lifetime of service’ to the United States.
- The ship was commissioned in 2017.
- It is the world’s largest ship, measuring approximately 1,092 feet (333 meters) in length, with a beam of 256 feet (78 meters) at its flight deck and a height of 250 feet (76 meters).
- It is a first-in-class aircraft carrier. First-in-class technology includes a new nuclear plant, the ability to generate nearly three times the amount of electrical power, innovative advanced arresting gear, and the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS).
- It has a displacement of a whopping 112,000 tonnes.
- It has the capacity to hold around 4,660 crew members.
- It can reach a speed in excess of 30 knots.
- It comes with a slew of surface-to-air missiles, including the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow, and the RIM-116, and M2 machine guns.
- It can carry more than 75 aircrafts.
