The Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding yard would have little difficulty in making a delivery change for the aircraft carrier John F Kennedy – as is being considered by the US Navy (USN), Mike Butler, Ford-class aircraft carrier John F Kennedy (CVN 79) programme director, said.
The US Navy is considering changing the delivery plan for aircraft carrier John F Kennedy (CVN 79). (Michael Fabey)
Currently, Kennedy is slated for two-phased delivery arrangement. For the first phase, the ship’s hull and basic infrastructure would be delivered, leaving combat systems equipment and some other systems for installation for the second delivery.
The dual delivery was meant to save initial construction funding as well as cut down on rework. Combat system equipment installed on a carrier within the traditional construction timeline would often prove to be obsolete by the time the ship was delivered, requiring replacement, upgrades, and related improvements. By saving combat system installation until later in the process, the USN planned to avoid such an overhaul.
But James Geurts, assistant secretary of the navy for research, development, and acquisition, told reporters on 28 October during a briefing at the Pentagon he is considering doing a single-phase delivery instead.
“Yes, we’ve heard that,” Butler told reporters on 29 October as he stood under Kennedy just before the yard started to flood the dock with water to float the ship.
“It’s primarily just additional combat systems work,” Butler noted, adding he saw no difficulty in doing that all in one phase as the yard has done in previous carriers, even at this late stage – the carrier is due to be christened in December.
“It’s what we do,” he said.
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