Recently, the U.S. Navy’s next-generation supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) set sail from Naval Station Norfolk on its first combat deployment. The deployment comes nearly six years after its delivery from Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding and subsequent commissioning in 2017, marking the first new-design aircraft carrier delivered to the Navy since USS Nimitz (CVN 68) in 1975. It is also the first aircraft carrier to join the fleet since USS George H. W. Bush (CVN 77) was del
