<P> Catapult No. 4 on the Nimitz class cannot launch fully loaded aircraft because of a deficiency of wing clearance along the edge of the flight deck . CVN - 78 will have no catapult - specific restrictions on launching aircraft, but still retains four catapults, two bow and two waist . The number of aircraft lifts from hangar deck to flight deck level was reduced from four to three . </P> <P> Another major change is that the smaller, redesigned island will be further aft than those of older carriers . This shift creates deck space for a centralized rearming and refueling location, and thereby reduces the number of times that an aircraft will have to be moved after landing before it can be relaunched . Fewer aircraft movements require, in turn, fewer deck hands to accomplish them, reducing the size of the ship's crew and increasing sortie rate . </P> <P> As well, the movement of weapons from storage and assembly to the aircraft on the flight deck has been streamlined and accelerated . Ordnance will be moved to the centralized rearming location via relocated, higher - capacity weapons elevators that use linear motors . The new path that ordnance follows does not cross any areas of aircraft movement, thereby reducing traffic problems in the hangars and on the flight deck . According to Rear Admiral Dennis M. Dwyer, these changes will make it hypothetically possible to rearm the airplanes in "minutes instead of hours". </P> <P> The new Bechtel A1B reactor for the Ford - class is smaller and simpler, requires fewer crew, and yet is far more powerful than the Nimitz - class A4W reactor . Two reactors will be installed on each Ford - class carrier, providing almost 700 MW which is 25% greater than 550 MW of the two A4W . As the Ford - class is primarily an electric boat; electrical capacity of the reactors was increased 2.5 times that of the Nimitz - class . </P>

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