USS Gerald Ford
New aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) completed its Flight Deck Certification (FDC) and Carrier Air Traffic Control Center (CATCC) Certification on March 20, following two days of intense flight deck operations to prove the ship and crew’s capabilities. Over a two-day period, F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornets from four squadrons assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8 conducted 123 day and 42 night catapult launches and trap recoveries aboard Ford, along with a Precision Approach Landing Systems (PALS) certification event.
“Our sailors performed at a level that was on par with a forward-deployed aircraft carrier, and this was a direct result of the hard core training and deployment-ready mentality we have pushed every day for the past year,” Capt. J. J. Cummings, Ford’s commanding officer, said in a Navy news release.
“Our team put their game faces on, stepped into the batter’s box and smashed line drives out of the park. It was fun to watch.”
