CVN 78 Gerald R Ford Class – US Navy CVN 21 Future Carrier Programme, United States of America

The US Navy’s programme CVN 21 for the future generation aircraft carrier programme was previously known as the CVN(X).

In January 2007, The US Navy announced that the new class would be called the Gerald R Ford Class.

The first two ships, Gerald R Ford (CVN 78) and CVN 79, will be commissioned in 2015 and 2019, and further ships of the class will enter service at intervals of five years. A total of ten Ford class carriers are planned with construction continuing to 2058.

The CVN 78 will replace USS Enterprise (CVN 65), which entered service in 1961 and will approach the end of its operational life by 2015. The total acquisition cost of the CVN 21 is expected to be $11.7bn.

The US Department of Defense awarded Northrop Grumman Newport News in Virginia a $107.6m contract in July 2003, a $1.39bn contract in May 2004 and $559m to prepare for the carrier construction and to continue the design programme on the ship’s propulsion system.

Iran warns US carrier to stay out of Persian Gulf

What will uncle wimpy Obama do??? Since the U.S. Sixth fleet is based in Bahrain, this is quite the fleet …

Iran Missile Drill Results Exaggerated, Images Photoshopped

By msnbc.com news services

Iran will take action if a U.S. aircraft carrier which left the area because of Iranian naval exercises returns to the Gulf, the state news agency quoted army chief Ataollah Salehi as saying on Tuesday.

“Iran will not repeat its warning … the enemy’s carrier has been moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill. I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf,” Salehi told IRNA.

“I advise, recommend and warn them (the Americans) over the return of this carrier to the Persian Gulf because we are not in the habit of warning more than once,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Salehi as saying.

Salehi did not name the aircraft carrier or give details of the action Iran might take if it returned. However, last week a spokeswoman for the U.S. 5th Fleet said the USS John C. Stennis had left the Gulf.

Iran completed 10 days of naval exercises in the Gulf on Monday, and said during the drills that if foreign powers imposed sanctions on its crude exports it could shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of the world’s traded oil is shipped.

The U.S. Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, said it would not allow shipping to be disrupted in the strait.

Satellite spots China’s first aircraft carrier at sea

This satellite image provided by the the DigitalGlobe Analysis Center shows the Chinese aircraft carrier Shi Lang (Varyag) sailing in the Yellow Sea. The picture was acquired Dec. 8 by DigitalGlobe’s QuickBird satellite.

A commercial satellite operator says it has captured a rare image of China’s first aircraft carrier as it sailed through the Yellow Sea, after going through an exercise that’s the 21st-century equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.

DigitalGlobe said the aircraft carrier showed up on a cloud-filled picture snapped on Dec. 8 by its polar-orbiting QuickBird satellite from a height of 280 miles (450 kilometers). An analyst spotted the ship while checking the image on Tuesday, said Stephen Wood, the director of the company’s analysis center.

“There is something that is always indispensable about having people involved,” Wood told me. The ship was identified “using a combination of the satellite imagery plus open-source material on the Internet, and geography,” he said, but “at the end of the day, it still comes down to a person.”

Experts have been hoping for months to get a glimpse of the aircraft carrier at sea. The former Soviet Union started building the ship, originally known as the Varyag, but never finished it. After the Soviet breakup, the Varyag ended up in the hands of the Ukrainian government. The ship was auctioned off to the Chinese in 1998. Since then, the Varyag, which has reportedly been rechristened the Shi Lang, has been under refurbishment for sea service.

“This is a ship and a story that has had legs for many years,” Wood said.

New Pictures Of China’s Aircraft Carrier Putting Out To Sea

China's Refurbished Soviet Aircraft Carrier

China’s new aircraft carrier, the refurbished Soviet Varyag, has been rechristened the Shi Lang and took another cruise Tuesday.

DefenseTech blog put up the following photos showing the carrier as it makes its second voyage, though this one unaccompanied by the numerous tugs from its August debut (via Alert 5). DefenseTech points out the absence of a wake, and that in the following shot a tow-line is visible from her stern. The comments at DefenseTech offer a glimpse into various ideas and considerations about the carrier’s potential.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/varyag-shi-lang-china-aircraft-carrier-sea-trials-2011-11#ixzz1fCZMDiGX