USS JFK inches forward to completion
The future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) has returned to HII-Newport News Shipbuilding following successful builder’s sea trials. A team of shipbuilders and the CVN 79 crew spent a week at sea testing important ship systems and components for the first time.
The good news is that she was able to complete the trials without having to be towed back halfway through, and no apparent fires were observed.
Still, she looks beautiful.
The second Gerald R. Ford-class super carrier has cost some $11.4 billion thus far and, ordered in January 2009, is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in March 2027, a gestation period of “just” 18 years, somehow twice as long as the class leader, Ford.
The plan is for the third Ford, the future USS Enterprise (CVN-80), to be delivered in 2030, only 14 years after HII was given the first award for her advanced planning.
We gotta do better, guys.