She did not go alongside at Festningkskaia, where large cruise ships normally moor up, but anchored away from the city center:
Don’t know if that is because of her size, daft, or because of the anticipated public reaction if a “nuclear powered monster” tied up in the middle of town.
Sailing in the Oslofjord:
Some got too close for comfort:
Sorry, in Norwegian only.
They are lucky it is summer. They get to see the Midnight Sun.
But those who were looking forward to see Northern Lights are plumb out of luck.
Although it is not regarded as any danger to have a large nuclear powered ship visiting Oslo, precautions for any unforeseen accident have planned for months in advance of the arrival of USS Gerald R. Ford:
In the scenario considered the vessel is assumed moored at Festningkaia (near Aker Brygge):
When USS Iwo Jima visited Oslo in 2018 she was moored at Festningskaia in downtown Oslo:
Well, there wasn’t a war going on in Europe in 2018.
No there wasn’t.
The USS Iwo Jima is not nuclear powered. Maybe that has something to do with it??
The USS Gerald R. Ford has left Oslo and heading out the Oslofjord:
Said to be heading north to participate in a major exercise in Northern Norway:
Back in the day, when the U.S. still had a couple diesel carriers operational like the America and the Kennedy, those were the carriers allowed to anchor in New York harbor for Fleet Week. As I recall, none of the Nimitz class carriers were able to participate. I could be completely wrong on this though.
Those were conventional steam turbine powered.
FORD probably moored out because the shore power was insufficient for the ship. There’s only one pier at Norfolk navy base she can use. It would surprise me if the Norway ports had compatible shore power.
Since shore power was not an option, she had the reactors up to power the ship. When reactors are critical, Navy nuke ships limit their time pier side.
I don’t know what the power requirement are for the USS Gerald R. Ford while idle in port.
Do they normally shut down the reactors when in port, even when on short visits in foreign ports?
Oslo Port does have shore connection facilities for container ships and ferries etc.:
They have signed a contract for installation of equipment to supply shore power to large cruise ships by 2024:
PS> Grid power in Norway are from renewable sources (hydro and wind). No gas, fuel or coal power stations. (Except at Longyearbyen on Svalbard)
FORD has 13.8KV electric plant, compared to the 4160 V NIMITZ plant. I don’t know what cruise ships have. When I was on TRUMAN, we rarely tied to a foreign pier. We didn’t always tie to pier in the US. At Key West we were ~5 miles out, while cruise ships pulled in. I’m not sure if it was the draft or the power plant, possibly both.
AFAIK, the only places FORD can connect shore power is NOB Norfolk and Newport News Shipbuilding.
For 3 or 4 days, we’d shut down. Many times a CVN will go out for 2 weeks, come in for 24-36 hours and go back out for 2 weeks. Allows for change out contractors, test personnel, etc. Plus the Navy doesn’t have shell out the Lack of Nookie pay. I can’t remember if we shut down on short inports or not. It’s been a long time.
Shut downs are no big deal. Start-ups can be a PITA.
The USS Gerald R. Ford has been observed heading north in the North Sea, (without AIS signals being transmitted):
She is anticipated to proceed to an aera of Lofoten and Vesterålen for an exercise with Norwegian Finnish and Swedish forces.
The supply ship USNS Joshua Humphreys has been idling off the NW coast of Norway for over a day now (with AIS active):
Don’t worry, she is well protected:
