The US carrier’s first deployment includes a visit to Halifax this weekend – Halifax

One of the world’s largest aircraft carriers, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is due in Halifax this weekend as part of her first deployment.

The United States Navy released a statement today saying the massive warship is expected to arrive in Halifax Harbor on Friday, the ship’s first port of call outside the United States.

The carrier and several support ships, known as the carrier strike group, left their homeport in Norfolk, Va., on October 4 and took part in naval exercises in the North Atlantic.

Described as the most advanced aircraft carrier in the US Navy, the US$13.3 billion warship is the first of Ford’s new class of aircraft carriers.

It is designed to carry a wider variety of aircraft, operate with fewer sailors, and it uses a new electromagnetic system for launching aircraft, which replaces the steam-powered catapults used by most carriers.

After the ship was commissioned five years ago, it was plagued with problems with its launch system and the elevators that bring missiles and bombs to the jets on the flight deck.

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on October 26, 2022.