Carrier Kennedy completes acceptance sea trials

Aircraft carrier John F Kennedy, shown here under construction, completed sea acceptance trials. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

Aircraft carrier John F Kennedy (CVN 79) completed acceptance sea trials, HII, whose Newport News Shipbuilding yard constructs US Navy (USN) carriers, confirmed on 15 August in a statement.

Kennedy returned to the shipyard after further testing and evaluation of important ship systems and components at sea, HII said.

Kennedy was procured in fiscal year (FY) 2013.

“The navy's FY 2026 budget submission estimates its total procurement cost at about USD13.2 billion, states that the ship is scheduled for delivery in March 2027, and requests USD150 million in CTC [cost to complete] funding to cover cost growth on the ship,” the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in its report Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Backgroundand Issues for Congress , released in December 2025.

“In the navy's budget submission for FY 2013, the ship's estimated delivery date was September 2022,” the CRS said. “The Navy's FY 2026 budget submission shows a delivery date of March 2027, a delay of 54 months.”

Kennedy ʼ s delivery date was “shifted to March 2027 from the anticipated delivery in July 2025 to support [the] completion of Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) certification and continued Advanced Weapons Elevator (AWE) work”, according to documents supporting the USN FY 2026 budget request.

Work on Kennedy has faced other delays. The ship was initially scheduled to be delivered in two phases – with the hull and its related systems first and then the combat system-related work to be completed and delivered later. However, the two were combined into a normal single-ship delivery.