HII notes progress on aircraft carrier programmes

Aircraft carrier John F Kennedy , shown here under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding, is expected to start sea trials this year. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

HII's Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) unit is reaching milestones for US Navy (USN) aircraft carrier construction, according to Chris Kastner, HII CEO, president, and director.

However, speaking on 30 October to analysts during a third-quarter (Q3) financial results call, Kastner provided updates on carriers John F Kennedy (CVN 79) and Enterprise (CVN 80).

“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, adding, “Shipbuilders are installing the large components that have now been received on CVN 80 Enterprise, which will allow erection progress to accelerate.”

He also acknowledged NNS had received Enterprise construction modules that had been delayed.

“We will install those in Q4 and get back on the erection schedule,” he 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.

The delivery delay for Kennedy