A deployment that keeps stretching<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
By late February, the Navy said<\/a> Ford had been away for more than eight months, with more than 4,000 sailors aboard, over four million meals served, and more than 400,000 gallons of drinking water produced each day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That sounds abstract until you picture daily life on what is basically a floating city. Laundry. Showers. Food lines. Spare parts. Constant replenishment. Adm. Daryl Caudle captured the strain in four words when he said “Extended deployments demand endurance”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ford is nuclear-powered<\/a>, and that matters. The ship itself is not burning conventional propulsion fuel the way a nonnuclear warship would. But a carrier strike group is never only the carrier. Aircraft sorties, destroyer escorts, resupply ships, and the wider logistics chain<\/a> still sit inside the Pentagon\u2019s emissions footprint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Defense Department said its FY 2019 emissions totaled about 55 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, with 62 percent coming from operational sources and jet fuel making up about 80 percent of operational emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Navy says Ford\u2019s new systems, including EMALS <\/a>and advanced arresting gear, have helped raise sortie generation compared with a Nimitz-class carrier. That is the tech story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The environmental question sits right beside it. The Department of the Navy\u2019s Climate Action 2030 plan<\/a> says the service is aiming for net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and an added five million metric tons of annual pollution cuts by 2027. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, maintenance delays and a tight carrier roster keep pushing deployments longer. In practical terms, the Navy is being asked to do more, stay out longer, and shrink its emissions. That is not impossible, but it is getting harder to pretend those goals live in separate boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ford\u2019s long mission is still a defense story first. No question. But it is also a reminder that ecology, logistics, and military power<\/a> now move together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The official statement was published on the U.S. Navy website<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most people look at an aircraft carrier and see hard power. Jets, radar, deterrence. But there is another side to … <\/p>\nAlso Read: The Navy\u2019s submarine crunch is also an environmental story<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Nuclear power does not erase the footprint<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Also Read: Japan launches the first \u201chybrid\u201d gasoline engine that runs on 30% hydrogen, and the key is that it does not require a complete overhaul<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Why the balance is getting harder<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Also Read: The Navy\u2019s submarine crunch is also an environmental story<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n