Nichols Martin
A Huntington Ingalls Industries shipbuilding division is halfway done with the construction of the U.S. Navy‘s future John F. Kennedy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding business reached the milestone upon the installation of a 905-metric ton superlift unit on the Ford-class ship’s aft section located in the middle of the hangar bay and flight deck, the company said Friday.
The 80-foot-long, 110-foot-wide superlift is composed of 19 smaller construction units and allowed the shipyard to install outfitting equipment before placement into a dry dock.
Lucas Hicks, vice president of Newport News Shipbuilding’s CVN 79 program, said the business completed the installation work 14 months earlier than the time frame for similar work on the USS Gerald R. Ford, the lead ship of the Navy’s Ford class.
JFK carrier is scheduled to be commissioned sometime in 2020.
