It anchored the brand-new aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford off the East Coast and subjected it to a series of underwater explosions, culminating in a whopping 40,000 pounds of TNT hammering the ship’s hull. The USS Gerald R. Ford is the first of the new type of carrier, called the Gerald R. Ford class. Ford carriers are packed with technological innovations designed to maximize efficiency now and enable future updates. At their most basic level, aircraft carriers are big boats with runways; their true firepower resides in the ship’s air wing. USS Ford’s Carrier Air Wing Eight (CVW-8) is composed of more than 70 fixed-wing, tiltrotor, and helicopter aircraft.