As the fleet grapples with coronavirus, the US Navy's newest aircraft carrier hit a major operational milestone

US Navy/MCS 2nd Class Ruben Reed

• The US Navy's first-in-class carrier USS Gerald R. Ford completed flight-deck and carrier air-traffic control center certifications this month.
• Those milestones underscore the progress of carrier, which has struggled with an array of new systems, and make it able to play a much bigger role in the fleet, as it can now host pilot qualifications.
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Off the East Coast this month, the Navy's newest aircraft carrier, the first-in-class USS Gerald R. Ford, reached several major milestones in a matter of hours, marking the advancement of the carrier's crew and its systems.

The Ford completed flight deck certification and carrier air-traffic control center certification on March 20, after it achieved Precision Approach Landing Systems certification and conducted two days of flight operations.

F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornets from four squadrons assigned to Carrier Air Wing 8 conducted 123 daytime launches and landings and 42 nighttime launches and landings aboard the Ford over a two-day period, exceeding the minimum requirements for each by three and two, respectively.

"Our sailors performed at a level that was on par with a forward deployed aircraft carrier, and this was a direct result of the hardcore training and deployment-ready mentality we have pushed every day for the past year," Capt. J. J. Cummings, the Ford's commanding officer, said in a release. "Our team put their game faces on, stepped into the batter's box and smashed line drives out of the park. It was fun to watch."

The certifications, photos of which you can see below, are major achievements not only for the carrier but also for the Navy, as the Ford is now the only only carrier qualification asset — meaning it can conduct carrier qualifications for pilots and other support operations — that will be regularly available on the East Coast this year.

Before flight deck and carrier air-traffic control certification, the Ford did Precision Approach Landing Systems certification. PALS is a requirement for flight operations. along with air-traffic controllers, it aids pilots in night or bad-weather landings and guides them to a good starting position for approaches.

US Navy/MCS 2nd Class Ryan Seelbach

The Ford is doing an 18-month post-delivery test and trials period, now in its fifth month.

The carrier finished aircraft compatibility testing at the end of January, successfully launching and landing five kinds of aircraft a total of 211 times. 

After that 18-month period, it will likely return to the shipyard for any remaining work that couldn't be done at sea.

The Ford's carrier air-traffic control center team assisted the flight-deck certification and had to complete its own certification in concert with it. CATCC certification was the culmination of a process that started at the Naval Air Technical Training Center in Florida last year.

US Navy/MCS 2nd Class Sean Rinner

Since that process began in October 2019, instructors from the training center have been working with Ford sailors during every phase — testing the sailors' practical knowledge, reviewing their checklists, and observing their recovery operations.

That training was vital to the Ford sailors' success this month. "We had no rust to knock off," said Chief Air Traffic Controller Lavese McCray. "We've tested and trained for so many operations that it made the [certification] scenarios look easy."

US Navy/Chief MCS RJ Stratchko

Inspectors from Naval Air Forces Atlantic praised the carrier air-traffic control center sailors in their certification letter, according to the release.

"It was very apparent the entire CATCC team put forth a great deal of effort preparing for their CATCC certification," the letter said. "All CATCC functional areas were outstanding. Additionally, the leadership and expertise exhibited by the Air Operations Officer and his staff were extremely evident throughout the course of the entire week."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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• A US Navy special warfare operator has tested positive for the coronavirus

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