NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The nation’s newest aircraft carrier has successfully completed its first launch and landing of a fixed-wing aircraft using new technology.
The U.S. Navy said an F/A-18 Super Hornet landed on the USS Gerald R. Ford on Friday afternoon and was launched using an electromagnetic launch system a short time later.
The successful test off the Virginia coast comes after President Donald Trump helped commission the $12.9 billion warship July 22, calling it a “100,000-ton message to the world.”
Trump had previously criticized the carrier’s cutting-edge systems to launch and land fighter jets, saying the Navy should go back to using steam catapults because the new systems were costly and “no good.”
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Named after the country’s 38th president, the ship is the first of the new Ford class of aircraft carrier.