The US Navy wanted to verify that its latest $ 5 billion equipment could withstand the conditions encountered in a (naval) battle.
It was best not to sail off the coast of Florida this Friday, June 18! The US Navy carried out a series of stress tests on its giant aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, causing a major shock in the open sea.
The US Navy wanted to verify that its latest $ 5 billion gear was able to withstand the combat conditions encountered in battle. So she decided to throw 20 tons of explosives a few meters from the ship and observe how the latter took the shock of incredible violence, as you can see in our video at the top of the article.
The explosion was so great that the United States Geological Surve y recorded an earthquake measuring 3.9 on the very spot where the explosion took place, about 160 kilometers from the coast. Fortunately, the people of Florida did not feel the shock.
“The US Geological Survey’s seismic activity website lists an ‘experimental explosion’ with a magnitude of 3.9 at 170km east-northeast of Ponce Inlet, Fla.”
The Navy said the tests were “in line with environmental mitigation requirements, respecting known migration patterns of marine life in the test area.”
This battery of tests is the last step before the commissioning of this vessel, whose long construction (9 years) was completed in 2017 with two years late. Donald Trump himself had inaugurated the ship in Norfolk, Virginia, at the shipyard where it was built. The 332-meter-long USS Gerald R Ford is one of the largest aircraft carriers in the world. It welcomes on board a crew of around 4,500 sailors.