More contract changes likely for carrier Kennedy as HII turns over compartments to navy

More contract changes are likely for carrier John F Kennedy , shown here under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

More contract changes are envisioned for aircraft carrier John F Kennedy (CVN 79) with most of the ship's compartments being turned over to the US Navy (USN), according to Christopher Kastner, president and CEO of HII, whose Newport News Shipbuilding is constructing the ship.

About 94% of Kennedy's compartments have been turned over to the navy and all the ship's combat systems have been turned over to the test team, Kastner acknowledged on 6 February during a quarterly earnings call.

“We do expect a contract change related to some additional capabilities that may be put in the ship,” Kastner said, adding, “The programme team's working on that and with the objective of getting the ship delivered with the most capability and deployed as soon as possible.”

Asked if the contract change on CVN 79 will result in a change in the delivery timeline for that ship, Kastner said, “Potentially we're working through that with the customer right now.”

Kennedy's delivery has already been changed due to contract modifications that shifted the ship from a dual delivery – with the hull and its related systems being delivered first, followed by the delivery of combat systems later – to a single full-ship delivery and another change that required additional capability for the ship.

“There's actually a couple changes, large changes that took place on CVN 79,” Kastner said.

“The first one was related to some significant combat system work that the navy asked us to do.”

He also noted that some post-shakedown availability was moved into the ship-baseline work.