IT'S OFFICIAL: Navy Names Newest Carrier After President Ford:

With flags around the nation still at half staff in memory of the late President Gerald R. Ford, Vice President Richard B. Cheney called today’s naming of the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier in Ford’s honor an even more fitting tribute because it looks to the future.

Speaking today at the Pentagon naming ceremony for the ship, Cheney joined Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter and other officials and servicemembers in naming the first of the new CVN-21 class of aircraft carrier the USS Gerald R. Ford.

The new class will replace the USS Enterprise and CVN-68 class carriers.

When USS Gerald R. Ford enters the Navy fleet in seven or eight years, it and its sister ships “will help ensure the sea power of the United States for the next half century,� the vice president said.

Winter described the capability the new carriers will bring to the fleet. “This fleet of the most technologically advanced aircraft carriers in the world will be the Navy’s premier forward asset for crisis response and principal platforms in providing early, decisive striking power in a major combat operation,� he told the audience.

The new carriers will be able to generate 25 percent more aircraft sorties than current carriers, generate three times the electricity, and include an improved, fully integrated warfare system and other new design technologies, he said.