China isn’t hiding the fact that those weapons are intended to repel American ships one of its weapons-testing sites tucked away in the Taklamakan Desert has full-size mock-ups of U.S. The country has aggressively scaled the size of its naval fleet in the past decade and has developed several anti-ship weapons-including highly maneuverable hypersonic missiles capable of reaching Mach 10. While Russia also possesses hypersonic weapons, China worries the Navy most. and British battleships, these new missiles have the potential to wipe out the most advanced ships currently sailing the oceans.Ī sobering report from the Congressional Research Service, updated in August 2022, points to concerns “about the survivability of Navy surface ships in potential combat situations against adversaries, such as China, that are armed with large numbers of UAVs and anti-ship missiles, including advanced models.” In the same way that an emerging technology in World War II-squadrons of attack planes-was deployed by Japan to sink the most powerful U.S. Seeing it on the water is like watching a New York City block cruise past at 34 miles per hour.īut new anti-ship missiles from China, some capable of maneuvering at hypersonic speeds above Mach 5, threaten to render Ford and the Navy’s entire Pacific Fleet obsolete. Powered by a pair of advanced A1B nuclear reactors, the ship has nearly three times the power of America’s existing supercarriers, about 300 megawatts of electrical power in all, according to the Navy.

That’s 32,000 tons heavier than the largest battleships of World War II. Its airpower exceeds that of at least 60 nations, and it houses more stealth fighters than are found in all of Russia’s armed forces.įord stands more than nine stories above the waterline and weighs 97,000 tons.

The vessel holds four squadrons of fighters on board and a bevy of support and tactical aircraft-more than 60 planes in all, though it can accommodate as many as 90. It boasts a sprawling five-acre flight deck and new technologies aimed at making it (and carriers like it) the world’s most powerful well into 2050 and beyond. The $13.3 billion Ford is the largest and most expensive warship ever to sail. Ford, deployed for the first time amid rising tensions across the Pacific and uncertainty about the role these seafaring behemoths will play in the future of warfare. On October 4, America’s newest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R.

Instal the new Super Warship