HII cites aircraft carrier milestones as US Navy notes delays

Aircraft carrier John F Kennedy, shown here under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding, is slated to be accepted by the US Navy later this year. (Michael Fabey)

Ford-class aircraft carriers being built at HII's Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia are reaching construction milestones even as the US Navy (USN) cites programme delays and cost increases in recent fiscal year (FY) 2027 budget proposal documents.

“We remain focused on preparing for [ John F Kennedy ] CVN 79 acceptance trials later this year,” HII CEO Chris Kastner told investment analysts during a 5 May quarterly call.

“CVN 80 Enterprise is now coming together at pace and is over 50% erected in Dry Dock 12 and [ Doris Miller ] CVN 81 units continue to move through steel fabrication and outfitting in support of the keel laying later this year.”

Kari Wilkinson, HII executive vice president and Newport News Shipbuilding president, noted on the 5 May call that work is progressing on Enterprise now that some previously delayed supplier-provided equipment is being delivered and put on the ship.

“Having that equipment delivered now ... is really going to help us from a performance perspective,” she said. “The team has been really focused on structural completion with those components in place. Over the quarter, we did three [ship] superlifts over the course of just 10 days.”

Superlifts are major milestones for carrier construction where groups of assembled subassemblies, creating ship sections, are crane-lifted into place in the dry dock.

She also noted, “It really enables the completion of distributed systems. The team getting the ship integrated.”