The time is quickly passing when the main weapons on the decks of aircraft carriers were missiles and artillery platforms.
Modern militaries are increasingly turning to technologies that can drastically reduce the cost of combat without losing effectiveness. Thus, combat lasers might become the symbol of a new approach in military affairs.
But is there a ship capable of generating enough energy for them? The answer is obvious - Ford class aircraft carriers!
Today we’ll be figuring out what the real capabilities of lasers are in naval warfare and what advantages we can get from them in the war of the future!
Modern militaries are increasingly turning to technologies that can drastically reduce the cost of combat without losing effectiveness. Thus, combat lasers might become the symbol of a new approach in military affairs.
But is there a ship capable of generating enough energy for them? The answer is obvious - Ford class aircraft carriers!
Today we’ll be figuring out what the real capabilities of lasers are in naval warfare and what advantages we can get from them in the war of the future!
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00:00The time is quickly passing when the main weapons on the decks of aircraft carriers
00:04were missiles and artillery platforms. Modern militaries are increasingly turning to technologies
00:09that can drastically reduce the cost of combat without losing effectiveness. Thus, combat lasers
00:16might become the symbol of a new approach in military affairs. But is there a ship capable
00:21of generating enough energy for them? The answer is obvious. Ford-class aircraft carriers.
00:27Today we will be figuring out what the real capabilities of lasers are in naval warfare
00:32and what advantages we can get from them in the war of the future.
00:38The Gerald R. Ford class of aircraft carriers, or should I say supercarriers,
00:43began their long and strange journey under the CVN-21 program,
00:47for which the U.S. Navy requested $1.5 billion in the FY 2004 budget.
00:53And although construction of the lead ship of the Gerald R. Ford CVN-78 class began exactly
00:59as planned in 2007 at Newport News Shipbuilding, the total cost to American taxpayers for the new
01:05toy of the fleet increased to $12.8 billion for the ship and another $4.7 billion for research
01:12and development work. But let's be completely honest, it was worth it. After all, this aircraft
01:18carrier is a true technological miracle whose evolution, as is the case with most ambitious
01:23projects, was not without headaches for its creators. Its dimensions in real life are even
01:29more impressive than on paper. This ruler of the seas and oceans impresses its viewers with
01:33a displacement of 100,000 tons, a length of 1,106 feet and a width of 256 feet, which is comparable
01:41to the size of more than three football fields. And its height of 250 feet is literally just short
01:47of the spire of Trinity Church in New York. The impressive size of the deck allows the
01:53new pearl of the American fleet to transport up to 90 aircraft, including Boeing F-A-18EF
01:59Super Hornet fighters as well as new Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, electronic warfare
02:05aircraft EA-18G Growler, Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft,
02:12Grumman C-2 Greyhound transporters, Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopters and also combat drones.
02:21It would perhaps be surprising if Ford supercarriers had no external distinctive
02:26feature from the Nimitz class that preceded them. The new class of vessels received a more
02:31aft location of the island, freeing up more space on the deck and the absence of bulky antennas.
02:37Over the decades of operation, Nimitz has absorbed many new technologies,
02:41but the carrier's ability to support the latest U.S. technological advances falls far short of
02:46Ford supercarriers. Moreover, the main problem here is the limited possibilities for generating
02:51electricity. Although it's not too surprising, since the Nimitz propulsion systems were developed
02:57back in the 1960s, when all onboard systems required much less energy. But now everything's
03:03changed. So two Bechtel A-1B nuclear reactors were installed in the Ford class, providing 25%
03:10more power generation capacity than the A-4W reactors installed at Nimitz.
03:15At the same time, they're smaller in size and much easier to maintain.
03:20Ford supercarriers convert steam into power by piping it into four main turbo generators
03:25to generate electricity to power core systems and new electromagnetic catapults.
03:30There are also Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System or EMALS, an aircraft launch system that
03:35uses a linear induction motor instead of a traditional piston motor. Thanks to this,
03:40airplanes and UAVs accelerate more smoothly and their airframe is subject to much less load.
03:46An additional plus for electromagnets is the reduction in the aircraft carrier's need for
03:50freshwater and energy-intensive desalination in general. However, EMALS is not the only one.
03:57Electromagnets were also used in the new Advanced Arresting Gear System,
04:01which replaced the hydraulic system introduced more than half a century ago.
04:06AAG also relieves aircraft of unnecessary stress during landing and is a more flexible,
04:12safe and reliable system overall. Simply put, now experts don't have to worry that the newest
04:17drones entering Ford's air wing are in danger due to sudden braking caused by hydraulics.
04:23The main stumbling block for the USS Ford was not even its staggering high cost,
04:27but rather the Advanced Weapons Elevator, a system of elevators powered by electromagnetic
04:33motors that allows you to quickly move ammunition from the weapons departments to the flight deck.
04:38The main trick is that due to the thoughtful placement of these elevators,
04:41ammunition will not cross any air wing movement zones, reducing to zero possible problems with
04:47movement in hangars and on deck due to which rearmament of aircraft will now take minutes,
04:52not hours. And although these elevators forced a delay in the ship's deployment,
04:56originally in 2018 moving to 2022, the US Navy still allowed the Ford crew and air wing to begin
05:02training in the spring of 2020 and even conduct shock testing in the summer of 2021. The ship
05:08bravely withstood the explosion of 40,000 pounds of TNT underwater nearby, but judging by the
05:15subsequently recorded earthquake measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale, it certainly shook up the sea
05:21creatures. All this time, the contractors continue to work hard on the functionality
05:26of the elevators, completing and handing them over to the Navy one after another.
05:30The carrier sensors and radars are also trying to keep up with other components in terms of
05:35innovation. Ford received the latest dual-band radar, DBR, which Raytheon developed specifically
05:41for the futuristic Zumwalt-class destroyers. Unfortunately, Zumwalt was ahead of its time
05:46and turned out to be too expensive, but their radars took root quite well on board the Ford
05:51class. DBR combines the AN-SPY-3 multifunctional X-band radar with S-band volume search radar
05:59emitters distributed over three phased arrays, providing radar illumination and tracking of
06:04targets at low altitude and their further tracking in all weather conditions. However,
06:09on the second ship of the class, CVN-79 John F. Kennedy, the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar,
06:15or ESIR, was installed to replace the DBR, saving the U.S. Navy more than $300 million.
06:21Generally speaking, the price of the next vessel turned out to be expectedly lower
06:26than the pioneer of the class — $11.34 billion versus $12.8 billion.
06:32The fangs of the aircraft carrier are two launchers of surface-to-air missiles RAM-162
06:38Evolved Sea Sparrow, ESM, two platforms with small homing surface-to-air missiles RAM-116
06:44Rolling Airframe Missile RAM, three Phalanx Close-In Weapon Systems SeaWiz,
06:51four 25-mm Mk 38 machine guns and four more M2 Browning .50-caliber machine guns.
06:58But all this power may fall short before a new danger in the face of enemy hypersonic missiles.
07:04Take the same Chinese DF-21D hypersonic anti-ship missile flying along the trajectory of an
07:09intercontinental ballistic missile and then diving at speeds of up to Mach 10.
07:15Now at its range of more than 1240 miles, and you get the dangerous prospect of creating an
07:20area-denial bubble in the form of a 1200-mile radius around each such launch platform located
07:26along the coast. Unfortunately, current systems are unable to intercept a missile at such an
07:32insane speed. But what about the speed of light? After all, this would simply laugh in the face
07:38of any hypersonic missile. Additionally, the cost of firing even from the most powerful
07:43combat lasers installed on a ship will cost taxpayers only $1 to $10, in contrast to any
07:49real or potential hypersonic interceptor missiles, whose price can easily exceed tens of millions of
07:55dollars. You can literally get rid of the number one threat to your aircraft carriers for the
08:00price of a cup of tea, as goes the song of the same name. Here at the top of the table for the
08:06military today is FEL or Free Electron Laser Technology, which is a candidate for directed
08:12energy anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapons. The principle of its operation is as follows.
08:19Radars detect an object approaching at supersonic speed. The guidance system locks onto the target
08:25while taking into account the heat and turbulence from hypersonic flight. Focused from many beams,
08:30a single beam begins to impact the enemy target's weak points, its fairing, control surfaces,
08:35fuel tanks or homing head, causing loss of control and or destruction of the target.
08:41Even if the target was not completely destroyed, its trajectory was somehow disrupted
08:46and it became vulnerable to finishing off by other air defense systems. More specifically,
08:51the most likely combat laser of the future to be installed on the Ford-class could be Helios,
08:56better known as High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance.
09:01This is a high-energy laser weapon with a power of 300 kilowatts, the development of which is the
09:06responsibility of the well-known Lockheed Martin, which has already given us many cool experimental
09:11aircraft. Unlike blasters from Star Wars, laser beams do not explode when they hit a target,
09:17but they do generate intense heat that can literally melt the sensors on drones and missiles
09:22approaching the ship. The only thing that the fleet and scientists working on Helios need to do
09:27is to tweak the power of the beam. After all, to effectively protect the US Navy fleet anywhere on
09:33the planet, Helios will require power from 500 kilowatts to 1 megawatt with an operating
09:38wavelength in the infrared range of 1-5 microns, which will be optimal for transmitting energy
09:43through the atmosphere, taking into account the weather. Moreover, the US super aircraft carriers
09:49already fulfilled the two main conditions for the successful installation of such futuristic
09:53weapons. First, the laser integrates well with the Aegis or AN-SPY-6 for precise tracking and
10:00tracking of hypersonic targets. And secondly, the USS Ford, having in-stock nuclear reactors
10:06with a generation of over 600 megawatts, will definitely easily allocate about 100-105 megawatts
10:12for the needs of even the most powerful combat laser. More than 10 years ago, the USS Ponce had
10:18successfully tested a 40-kilowatt laser sinking a motorboat, destroying a drone and detonating a
10:23rocket-propelled grenade on an approaching vessel. And now, after all this time, in February of this
10:29year, the US Navy announced that the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Pebble also successfully
10:34tested Helios to destroy an unmanned aerial target. Moreover, it was first noticed on board
10:40Pebble back in 2022, when the laser debut preceded the battle with the Houthis. It was then placed on
10:46the main forward pedestal of the ship, where the Phalanx SeaWiz MK-15 had previously been located.
10:52For now, we can only guess when the time will come for testing on board something larger than
10:56destroyers, and we sincerely hope that after the use of a combat laser on board the USS Ford,
11:02there will be no one left who believes that the future has not yet arrived.
11:07What do you think? Are lasers worth the investment? Or are even the most powerful lasers
11:12destined to remain on the screens of science fiction films and the pages of books?
11:16Let us know in the comments below. And if you enjoyed the video, please leave a like,
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11:25Thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next one.