With a U.S. Navy crew aboard for the first time, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) will head to sea before Memorial Day on May 29 for its acceptance trials, the final step before this new aircraft carrier is commissioned into the U.S. Navy.

The commissioning of the Ford, the largest warship in the world, is expected in June with U.S. President Donald Trump as guest of honor. It will be Trump's first commissioning of a navy warship as president. Trump has vowed to increase the number of warships in the navy.

Like Us on Facebook

The acceptance trials will be run by the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV). It ensures the Ford's systems all work and that the crew is ready to operate the carrier at sea.

Acceptance trials, however, won't include launching and recovering airplanes. This testing will take place after the Navy accepts delivery of the Ford.

"The crew is already onboard, operating and running the systems," said Acting Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley.

"She's at the naval station. She's loaded out, so the steps to go from acceptance trials to delivery, it's going to be contingent on, what are the critical starred card type of deficiencies -- if any -- that are identified during acceptance trials.

"We came out of builders trials strong. We're correcting those deficiencies" now before the ship heads back out to sea, Stackley noted.

"I'm pretty confident right now in a good (acceptance trials) and a quick turnaround to deliver the ship."

During the successful builder's trials that ended April 14, the 100,000 ton carrier equipped with technologies found on no other carrier saw shipbuilders from Huntington Ingalls test the warship's basic functions.

These tests included powering-up the carrier's nuclear power plant; tracking aircraft with its new and improved radar and dry-firing the new catapults of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) designed to give aircraft a smoother launch.

The Ford is the first of its class and the first totally new aircraft carrier design in four decades. Apart from the Gerald R. Ford, the other two carriers in the class are the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) and the USS Enterprise (CVN-80).