Even while tied up in port, the Navy's newest aircraft carrier is still testing its ability to fight

• In port this month, the Navy's newest aircraft carrier continued to hit milestones as it tests critical combat systems and exercises its flight deck.
• Sailors and contractors completed hull cleaning, inspection, and propeller polishing ahead of acoustic and special performance trials and assessed the functionality of spaces and equipment above decks.

USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) completed the 12th of 18 windows of opportunity (WOO) for maintenance September 1, as part of her 18-month Post Delivery Test and Trials (PDT&T) phase of operations designed to test critical combat systems and exercise the flight deck, with the goal of ensuring the ship's overall deployment readiness.

During WOO 12, Ford's crew, in concert with Huntington Ingalls-Newport News Shipbuilding (HII-NNS) contractors, achieved various PDT&T milestones to include small boat operations, hull cleaning, Consolidated Operability Test (COT), and Command, Control, Communications, Computer, and Combat Systems Readiness Assessment (C5RA).

Ford's deck and engineering department transported two 7-meter rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) to Naval Special Warfare Center Carderock for inspection and conducted several high-speed tests to determine if any maintenance or technical upgrades were required.

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Steven Sturm, from Los Angeles, Ford's ship boatswain's mate, said the inspection and high speed tests were a vital step toward ensuring Ford's RIB's are mission ready.

"Boat operations on the transit to Carderock and back went very well," added Sturm. "Deck department also got some great under instruction training time for one new coxswain and boat officer. Our under instruction coxswain, Boatswain's Mate Seaman Jerrico Enriquez, performed very well and is really close to earning his qualification."

Over the course of two weeks, divers from the Seaward Marine Corporation coordinated with Ford's engineering, reactor, and combat systems departments, to complete hull cleaning, inspection and propeller polishing in support of Ford's upcoming acoustic and special performance trials.

The hull cleaning will ensure accurate and valid data is obtained for Ford as a baseline for Ford-class aircraft carriers.

"The quarterly cleaning of a ship outside of docking periods ensures that we monitor the health of the hull and her components, ensuring that we increase time between scheduled dockings which serves as an overall cost savings to the U.S. Navy," said Cmdr. Homer Hensy, from Pawhuska, Oklahoma, Ford's chief engineer.

Above decks, weapons department conducted a COT to assess the functionality of spaces and equipment, and to determine if Ford meets "post-delivery" specifications.

Ford's COT included demonstrations of the forward and aft weapons handling areas, an increased number of ready service magazines and larger aircraft armament system storage areas — which makes Ford's assessment unique, when compared with Nimitz (CVN 68)-class assessments.

To prepare for COT demonstrations, Ford's weapons department safely on-loaded more than 120,000 pounds of inert ordnance.

Throughout the four-week inport WOO period, Ford's combat systems department executed a readiness assessment of its combat systems suite, known as C5RA. C5RA includes five combat systems: Radar and air traffic control, command and control system, navigation, networks and media distribution, and external and internal communications.

The comprehensive assessment of the material condition and operability of selected combat systems is an integral step in improving Ford's self-sufficiency and combat readiness while deployed in order to achieve optimized fleet response plan training and surge milestones.

During the assessment, the ship assessed 90 individual systems across three departments, with combat systems micro-miniature (2M) technicians conducting repairs on board, which saved the Navy $20,219 in maintenance costs.

"The assessment went well," said Chief Information Systems Technician Eric Brownlee, from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "The time with the Regional Maintenance Center was advantageous for our technicians, and put the ship in a much better place, in terms of readiness, for the upcoming Command Control Computer Intelligence System Operability Test."

Gerald R. Ford is now more than halfway through PDT&T and remains on track to complete all required milestones prior to commencing Full Ship Shock Trials next summer.