CVN 78 USS Gerald R. Ford visits the U.K. November 2022
CVN-78 the USS Gerald R. Ford made its maiden visit to the United Kingdom commencing on Monday November 14th 2022 when it dropped anchor at anchorage ‘C’ in The Solent, off Stokes Bay, Gosport, Hampshire.
The Gerald R. Ford is the first in it’s class [the Ford class], a few statistics of what is called the ‘Worlds largest warship’
Weighing in at 100,000 tons, an overall length of 1092ft (333m), beam of 256ft (78m) at the flight deck, a height of 250ft (76m) above the waterline containing 25 decks. It’s power comes from two Bechtel A1B PWR nuclear reactors, driving four propeller shafts. Carrying numerous Missile and Gun emplacements around the ship. Carrier Air Wing 8 from their home base of Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana, Virginia Beach, VA were deployed on board on this visit with a mixture of aerial assets including the following; four Squadrons of F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornets, one Squadron of EA-18G ‘Growlers’, two helicopter Squadrons using the MH-60S & MH-60R Seahawks, three E-2D Hawkeyes, and two C-2A Greyhounds. The C-2A’s will as I understand it soon be replaced by the MV-22B Ospreys. Unusually there were no Marine Corps Squadrons deployed on the ship.
To accomplish this visit by a much smaller vessel around the GRF (alas NO visitors were permitted to visit on the ship on this occasion) I left home the day prior to making the trip and travelled on the same train to Brighton further up the south coast of England. From there I took another train to Portsmouth Harbour railway station. From there I walked a short distance to the Spinnaker Tower a very distinctive building on the quay side. Once again I had to overcome my fear of heights in buildings and ride the lift to the observation deck. It wasn’t all that bad as there was a very welcoming coffee shop! It was from here that I caught my first glimpse of CVN-78 Gerald R. Ford laying at anchor in the Solent.
The weather was rather inclement at the time of this first glimpse and the forecast wasn’t looking for for the following day. Later I made my way to my hotel at nearby Southsea which fortunately I’d had the foresight to eat before getting there as there dining hall had been trashed by a recent gale/storm hitting the south coast region.
From my first floor room at the hotel it was possible to see the ‘Island’ and radar antennae and the weather wasn’t looking as bad as the forecast had given the day before. I got back to the Porstmouth harbour side of the ferry to Gosport where I was to join other enthusiasts who had paid for the trip around the aircraft carrier.
An on-time departure on one of the Gosport to Portsmouth ferries saw us head off towards this ship. It wasn’t that long before I heard a familiar voice say ‘hello bonny lad’ I turned around to see my friend Dave ‘Herr Vest’ West who’d made it all the way down from Southern Scotland for this event! Minutes later another long term friend Alec came and said hello, so the morning got of to a great start.
After a lot of chatting between us we soon arrived off the stern of the (no closer than 200 metres from the ship at any time) GRF. The speed of the ferry was slowed down to allow us the ability to photograph as many of the aircraft as we could see on deck which was a real bonus. There was an excellent variety of F-
The ferry took us down from the stern of the port side, around the bow and then along the starboard side towards the stern and from there it was all back to Gosport and the ferry terminal.
Photos of the GRF will follow the publication of this narrative.
Details are correct up to date which is November 6th, 2024