The new Ford model
November 5th, 2009 | Carriers | Posted by Andrew Scutro
Northrop Grumman has announced a date for the ceremonial keel-laying of the Navy’s new class of aircraft carrier. On Nov. 14, dignitaries and media will crowd into the Newport News shipyard for a ceremonial beginning of the Gerald R. Ford, CVN 78.
The last of the Nimitz-class carriers, the George H.W. Bush, was commissioned on a bright but chilly Jan. 10 by the former president himself. President Ford’s daughter Susan Ford Bales is CVN 78′s sponsor and her initials will be welded into the ship’s steel.
Like the first President Bush, Ford served in the Navy during World War II. The first of the Ford carriers is expected to join the fleet in 2015 with a host of new technologies and design changes from the Nimitz ships.