Despite growing interest in possibly expanding the number of vertical-takeoff
warplanes in the U.S. Joint Strike Fighter program, the additional maintenance
work associated with these aircraft makes it unlikely that they will fly from
the deck of the Navy’s future aircraft carrier, the CVN-21.
The CVN-21 will be far more sophisticated than the current Nimitz-class carriers.
Air wings operating from CVN-21 are expected to include a blend of advanced
combat jets, as well as unmanned aircraft. The Navy is slated to buy a carrier-unique
version of the JSF, eventually to replace the Super Hornet attack fighter, but
the Navy does not plan to add the vertical-lift JSF model into the mix aboard
CVN-21. The vertical-lift JSF is intended to replace the Marine Corps’
Harrier, and to operate from large-deck amphibious ships.
Maintenance “issues” associated with the vertical-takeoff JSF have
led the Navy to make the decision that the aircraft should not operate from
CNV-21, said Rear Adm. Dennis Dwyer, Navy program executive officer for aircraft
carriers.
A spokesman for the manufacturer of the JSF, Lockheed Martin, said company
officials were surprised by Dwyer’s statement. “The whole emphasis
of the JSF program is shifting to STOVL (short takeoff and landing), particularly
given the lessons learned in Afghanistan and Iraq with their bombed out runways,”
he said. “STOVL is the most transformational fighter of the three versions.”
Lockheed Martin has not identified any maintenance issues that would prevent
STOVL from being deployed aboard the CVN-21, the spokesman said. “Other
than the lift fan, all the maintenance is essentially the same for STOVL and
standard version.”
Maintenance is an overarching theme in CVN-21. The entire design of the ship
was aimed at simplifying aircraft and weapon maintenance, and in the process
shrinking the amount of manual labor needed aboard the ship. While a Nimitz-class
carrier has a crew of more than 5,000, the CVN-21 will get by with about 2,000
sailors.
In a briefing to reporters last month, Dwyer explained that the CVN-21 features
maintenance concepts taken right out of NASCAR’s auto racing playbook—with
on-deck pit stops on the starboard side of the carrier. Rather than move an
aircraft from station to station to receive ordnance, fuel and diagnostic treatment,
the pit stop provides a single, centralized point for all the aircraft’s
needs.
Advanced weapons elevators have been developed for the CVN-21 that employ linear
electric motors, which means items from below get to the deck more quickly.
Dwyer said that productivity is a priority in CVN-21. The goal is to increase
sortie rates by 15 percent over Nimitz-class carrier operations.
One key technology needed to increase sortie rates is an electromagnetic aircraft
launch system, which will replace steam catapults.
Dwyer, meanwhile, expressed confidence about the future carrier’s role
in launching unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, now in development under a program
called J-UCAS (joint unmanned combat system), managed by the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency.
The unglamorous business of re-supplying the ship at sea figured prominently
in the design of the CVN-21.
“We’ve got to double the rate at which supply ships along side
the carrier transport material,” said Matthew Mulherin, vice president
of Northrop Grumman Newport News, the designer and manufacturer of CVN-21. “We’ve
made the two elevators faster and bigger. We’ve also made sure that travel
pathways within the carrier are built to allow rapid transfer of all materials
to their locations.”
The Navy has learned lessons from the construction of commercial cruise ships,
said Mulherin, “particularly the modular approach they use to build their
vessels.” He noted that there are no paper blueprints for the CVN-21.
“It’s all in the computer, and even the steel fabrication will be
automated.”
Construction of the carrier will begin in 2007, said Mulherin. Currently, 2,700
design engineers and construction personnel are working on the design phase,
which is 53 percent complete. As many as 3,500 technicians will be working on
the program by the end of the design phase.
The Navy plans to deploy the CVN-21 in 2014. The yet-unnamed carrier will have
a life expectancy of 50 years. Dwyer predicted the name is likely to be the
Enterprise. That’s not a surprise since the CVN-21 will replace the aging
CVN-65 USS Enterprise that has been sailing the seas since January 1962.