Carrier USS Gerald R Ford arrives in Norfolk Naval Shipyard for first planned incremental availability

USS Gerald R Ford, shown here, is now in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for its first planned incremental availability. (Michael Fabey)

Aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford (CVN 78) arrived in Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) for the ship's first planned incremental availability (PIA), shipyard officials confirmed on 8 July in statement.

This is Ford 's first regularly scheduled availability at a public shipyard as well as the first time a Ford-class aircraft carrier has been serviced at NNSY, yard officials noted.

The Ford work is likely to challenge the public shipyard, which has gone through an organizational and operational overhaul to turnaround recent poor performance and redeliver ships on time or earlier than scheduled, according to Rear Admiral Kavon Hakimzadeh, Norfolk Naval Shipyard commander.

The shipyard is preparing to work on the new-class carrier under a unique arrangement for HII's Newport News Shipbuilding, which built the warship, Rear Adm Hakimzadeh explained to Janes during a 11 May interview at NNSY.

The biggest challenge with Ford , Rear Adm Hakimzadeh said, is that this will be the first PIA for a new-class ship after a long deployment and navy officials don't know what to expect once they begin the work.

“We don't know what we don't know,” he said.

The 326-day deployment, which included operations in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Red Seas, was the longest carrier deployment since the Vietnam era, USN officials said.

Under the agreement between Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Newport News Shipbuilding, the public yard will do the work and the private yards remains the planning class for such work for the Ford-class carriers, he noted.