"JFK--and Enterprise, and future ships--have SPY-6 and SPQ-9B."
The short circuits happen more frequently these days...
I don't want to put anyone off buying the new model, but Ford was basically a prototype. Future production ships will have some differences, so anyone wishing to do other than Ford herself from the kit should understand that it will not be an OOB build if accuracy is a concern.
Yes, it applies to JFK, and is planned for all future class members. Enterprise is likely to look more like JFK than Ford herself, but there could still be further future differences. These ships will be many years apart, and some things are likely to change. That should be kept in mind if planning to model a ship not yet even constructed from a kit of the prototype.
And current pictures of the state of the JFK to use for this project are indeed not easy to come by. As Lars has noted, Ford has SPY-4 and SPY-3. JFK--and Kennedy, and future ships--have SPY-6 and SPQ-9B. Fortunately, from looking at photos of the islands themselves as they were being installed, those look pretty much the same. So, the change from Ford to JFK is a subtle switching of radars, dome placements, and that sort of thing. I would note at this point, though, that JFK was originally planned to have SPY-4 & 3 before being switched, so it is actually possible that Enterprise--planned from the outset to have the new radars--could well have an island more substantially altered to better optimize the new radars.
The best comparison image I can find is only the fronts of the islands:
https://x.com/W_ChiefGunner/status/1193770140673855490
Contained within this article below is a photo of the front of the JFK island which bears out the accuracy of the drawing in the link above:
https://www.navaltoday.com/2024/02/23/hii-performs-topside-emals-testing-on-us-navys-john-f-kennedy-cvn-79/
Compare that with the front of the Ford island:
https://news.usni.org/2020/06/01/uss-gerald-ford-done-proving-it-can-launch-planes-ready-to-tackle-warfighting-operations
In an earlier discussion of this topic, another poster provided better images of the rest of the two islands. Hopefully they will show up here and repeat that.
Here is a 2015 article announcing the decision to switch the radar systems:
https://news.usni.org/2015/03/17/peo-carriers-cvn-79-will-have-a-new-radar-save-180m-compared-to-dual-band-radar
Yes I was aware but couldn't find pictures..
Will this apply to JFK?
Thanks
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