Scott Nicholas
Huntington Ingalls Industries‘ Newport News Shipbuilding division has carried a 776-ton unit into Dry Dock 12 as part of construction work on the second Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier for the U.S. Navy.
The company said Monday the superlift for the John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier follows a build strategy implemented on the development of a previous Ford-class carrier that recorded a higher state of outfitting completion.
“For Kennedy, increased pre-outfitting puts into practice one of many lessons learned from Gerald R. Ford,” said Mike Shawcross, vice president of CVN 79 construction at Newport News Shipbuilding.
Huntington Ingalls noted that the John F. Kennedy team has completed approximately 25 percent of the work on the carrier.
The ship is designed to replace USS Nimitz and scheduled for delivery to the Navy by 2022.
