Aircraft carrier John F Kennedy leaves shipyard for sea trials

Aircraft carrier John F Kennedy , shown here under construction in dry-dock, got underway for sea trials. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

Second Ford-class carrier John F Kennedy (CVN 79) got underway from Newport News Shipbuilding on 28 January to start sea trials, the shipyard confirmed later that day.

“ John F Kennedy departed HII's Newport News Shipbuilding division today to undergo builder's sea trials,” Todd Corillo, HII spokesperson for Newport News Shipbuilding, told Janes on 28 January.

“These trials will test important ship systems and components at sea for the first time,” Corillo noted.

Speaking on 30 October to analysts during a third-quarter (Q3) financial results call, Chris Kastner, HII CEO and president, indicated the shipbuilder had anticipated starting the trials earlier.

“CVN 79 Kennedy continues to make progress in its testing programme, and we expect to conduct the ship's first sea trials around the end of the year,” Kastner said.

Kennedy's delivery date is being shifted to March 2027 from the anticipated delivery in July 2025 “to support completion of Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) certification and continued Advanced Weapons Elevator (AWE) work”, according to documents supporting the USN fiscal year (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.

About the same time, Congress demanded that the ship be able to accommodate F-35C aircraft, which required ship modifications. With these and other changes, the delivery date has been shifting later.