Scott Nicholas
Huntington Ingalls Industries‘ Newport News Shipbuilding division continues its work on a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier for the U.S. Navy with the placement of a 900-ton superlift into dry dock.
HII said Monday work on the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) is on track with the launch date slated for 2020 and delivery to the service branch in 2022 to replace USS Nimitz.
Mike Shawcross, vice president for CVN 79 carrier construction at Newport News, said lessons learned from previous constructions and build strategy changes have helped drive the program to meet target construction results.
The company builds the aircraft carrier using a modular construction process where work is done on separate sections of the ship called superlifts before they are lifted onto the dry dock.
Program Director Mike Butler noted he believes the use of fewer lifts to the dock with larger superlifts and more outfitting works to cut needed man-hours to complete the construction.
