The U.S. Navy has completed full ship shock trials of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, concluding four months of tests that aimed to verify the ship's shock resistance against explosives and other forces.
USS Gerald R. Ford underwent its third explosive event, where the ship resisted a 40,000-pound underwater blast off Jacksonville, Florida's coast, the Navy said Sunday, the same day as the test.
The explosive event follows two previous ones, which also subjected the ship to underwater blasts of the same base magnitude. Blast distances got closer to the ship as testing progressed.
“These shock trials have tested the resiliency of Ford and her crew and provided extensive data used in the process of validating the shock hardness of the ship," said Capt. Brian Metcalf, manager of PMS 378, the Navy’s future aircraft carrier program office.
Rear Adm. James Downey, the Navy's program executive officer for aircraft carriers, said each blast was choreographed to the smallest detail with coordination between the ship's crew, other platforms involved and environmental scientists.