Peter Graham
Huntington Ingalls Industries aims to complete and launch the U.S. Navy‘s John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier by the end of next year, USNI News reported Friday.
HII CEO Mike Petters told analysts during a conference call held Thursday the company is ahead of schedule on JFK construction efforts and uses fewer man-hours to build the ship.
Petters attributed the reduction of labor hours to a digital technology that generates imagery and guides workers in the shipbuilding project.
Eighty-four percent of the vessel’s structures are complete, the report noted.
The projected JFK launch date could happen approximately six years after the Navy christened the first-in-class USS Gerald R. Ford carrier.
Congress established an $11.4B funding limit for USS Kennedy and the cap represents a nearly 15 percent decrease in the $13B price tag for USS Ford.
