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April 13 (UPI) -- The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford completed its qualifications for pilots in its first Fleet Replacement Squadron exercise, the U.S. Navy announced Monday. The training, known as carrier qualifications, was concluded in early April in the Atlantic Ocean where the carrier, whose home port is Newport News, Va., is deployed.
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The FRS trains pilots, naval flight officers and maintainers on specific front-line aircraft they have been assigned to fly, some of whom may be training for current and upcoming deployments.
It was conducted during the ship's month-long "Independent Steaming Event 9, in which it independently executed a training schedule without tasking from higher authority. The event ended on Sunday.
The USS Gerald R. Ford is regarded as the world's largest aircraft carrier and is currently the only carrier on the East Coast available to qualify pilots.
The CQ included day and night flight operations, and required the ship and its crew of more than 2,600 personnel to work with Strike Fighter Squadron 106 and Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 120 around the clock, the Navy said in a statement.
"For the first time ever this ship conducted carrier qualifications for two fleet replacement squadrons and generated readiness for the fleet," Capt. J. J. Cummings, Ford's commanding officer said in a statement. "The crew knows that many of these aviators will be headed right out to deployed squadrons and that makes them extremely proud."
Twenty-seven pilots earned their qualifications during the tests. The two squadrons accomplished 425 catapult launches and 495 traps, or arrested landings, while they were aboard the ship, the Navy said.
