President Donald J. Trump commissioned the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) at a commissioning ceremony July 22.

A commissioning is a day of celebration, and honors the dedication, team work, and collaboration of Sailors, legislators, shipbuilders, program managers, and the ship's sponsor in delivering the ship to the fleet.

Trump landed on the flight deck in Marine One and was greeted by Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Acting Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, and USS Gerald R. Ford Commanding Officer Capt. Rick McCormack.Over 10,000 friends and family members attended the event, watching the festivities from the hangar bay, the pier and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69).

On July 13 began the UNITAS LVIII-17 miltinational exercises and will be held until next June 26 in Peruvian waters.

In this edition of UNITAS, units from the United States, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Spain, King Britain and Peru participate.

UNITAS will be developed in several phases in which anti-submarine, anti-surface, anti-aircraft, MIO, SAR exercises will be carried out

The present exercises UNITAS will count on the participation, among others, of the following units:

The future USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) returned from Builder's Sea Trials to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia on April 14 after seven days at sea.

During this initial at-sea period, Ford's crew, representatives from Huntington Ingalls Industries-Newport News Shipbuilding, the Navy's CVN 78 Program Office, the Navy's Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair and various technical subject matter experts demonstrated many of the ship's capabilities including tracking aircraft using the Dual Band Radar, conducting "no load" cycles using the new electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) and small boat operations.

The aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise (CVN 65), was decommissioned during a ceremony held in the ship's hangar bay, Feb. 3.

The ceremony not only marked the end the ship's nearly 55-year career, it also served as the very first decommissioning of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Capt. Todd Beltz, commanding officer of the Enterprise, addressed the ship's company, former commanding officers and distinguished visitors and spoke of where the true spirit of "The Big E" comes from.