Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) received a $3.35 billion contract award for the detail design and construction of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), the second ship in the Gerald R. Ford class of carriers. The work will be performed at the company’s Newport News Shipbuilding division. The company also received a $941 million modification to an existing construction preparation contract to continue material procurement and manufacturing in support of the ship.
Contract work includes aircraft carrier construction, ship design activities, engineering services, procurement of materials and hardware to support construction and logistics activities.
«These awards are important, not only for the shipbuilders at Newport News Shipbuilding, but for the thousands of suppliers nationwide who provide the steel, pipe, cable, paint and equipment that goes into this cutting-edge defense platform – and for the sailors who will sail her», said Mike Shawcross, Newport News Shipbuilding’s vice president, John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) carrier construction. «We look forward to continuing to implement lessons learned from the first-of-the-class ship, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), in the construction of Kennedy and delivering the next great carrier to the Navy».
John F. Kennedy’s first steel was cut in December 2010. Since then, more than 450 of the ship’s 1,100 structural units have been constructed under a construction preparation contract that will be used to start erecting the hull. The ship’s keel-laying ceremony is scheduled for August 22.
John F. Kennedy will continue the legacy of highly capable U.S. Navy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier platforms. Ford-class enhancements incorporated into the design include flight deck changes, improved weapons handling systems and a redesigned island, all resulting in increased aircraft sortie-generation rates. The Ford class also features new nuclear power plants, increased electrical power-generation capacity, allowance for future technologies, and reduced workload for sailors, translating to a smaller crew size and reduced operating costs for the Navy.
General Characteristics
| Builder | Newport News Shipbuilding, Virginia |
| Propulsion | 2 A1B nuclear reactors, 4 shafts |
| Length | 1,092 feet/333 m |
| Beam | 134 feet/41 m |
| Flight Deck Width | 256 feet/78 m |
| Flight Deck Square | 217,796 feet2/20,234 m2 |
| Displacement | approximately 100,000 long tons full load |
| Speed | 30+ knots/34.5+ mph/55.5+ km/h |
| Crew | 4,539 (ship, air wing and staff) |
| Armament | ESSM (Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile), RAM (Rolling Airframe Missile), Mk-15 Phalanx CIWS (Close-In Weapon System) |
| Aircraft | 75+ |
| Ships | USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78);USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) |
