More than two-thirds of carrier Kennedy compartments turned over, carrier Enterprise delivery delayed

HII's Newport News Shipbuilding has turned over about 70% of ship compartments on aircraft carrier John F Kennedy to the US Navy. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

HII's Newport News Shipbuilding has turned over 70% of aircraft carrier John F Kennedy (CVN 79) compartments to the US Navy (USN), but the delivery of carrier Enterprise (CVN 80) will be delayed, Christopher Kastner, HII CEO and president told investment analysts on 2 November, during a quarterly earnings call.

Work on Kennedy is focused on compartment completion and the test programme, Kastner said, with the yard recently lighting off combat systems for integrated testing.

Enterprise is about 25% complete, Kastner said.

However, “due to major component delays from the supply chain”, driven primarily by the Covid-19 pandemic and labour and supply-chain effects subsequent to the pandemic, the delivery of CVN 80 is forecasted to be about 12 months late, he said.

To mitigate the delay, HII has worked with the navy to employ “innovative build techniques”.

He noted that the combined buy of CVN 80 and Doris Miller (CVN 81) has benefitted from the bundling and early procurement of the majority of the material. More than 70% of the material for CVN 81 has already been placed on order, he said, “generating significant savings over the traditional approach to ordering”.