HII Reaches Preliminary Acceptance of Carrier John F. Kennedy
Huntington Ingalls Industries has reached preliminary acceptance of the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79), the second ship of the Ford class. HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division announced the milestone on September 29, after acceptance trials in August.
The ship left the Newport News yard the same day and is moving to Naval Station Norfolk. Preliminary acceptance lets the Navy begin its own underway testing and evaluation of the carrier’s systems, and it is the last step before formal delivery.
Navy Testing Starts Ahead of Delivery
Bryan Caccavale, Newport News Shipbuilding’s vice president of program management, said in the company’s announcement that “achieving preliminary acceptance is another step toward ensuring the U.S. Navy has the aircraft carriers it needs to carry out the mission of defending our nation.”
The Navy is targeting delivery in March 2027. That date sits years behind the original plan, which called for delivery in 2020. Kennedy’s keel was laid in July 2015, and the ship was launched on October 29, 2019 and christened by Caroline Kennedy that December.
Public references put the ship’s cost at about $11.3 billion.
Elevators and Arresting Gear Held Things Up
Two systems slowed the carrier in 2025: the Advanced Arresting Gear, which catches aircraft as they land, and the Advanced Weapons Elevators that move munitions from deep magazines to the flight deck. The Navy and Congress also ordered equipment changes, including F-35C capability, that added work.
USNI News reported in August that seven weapons elevators had been delivered by the time the carrier left for acceptance trials. HII said on August 15 that the ship had returned to the yard after testing systems and components at sea.
Builder’s trials came first. Kennedy went to sea for the first time on January 28 and returned on February 4 after about a week in the Atlantic.
Second Ford-Class Carrier Nears the Fleet
Kennedy is a nuclear-powered carrier built to the same basic design as USS Gerald R. Ford, with lessons from that ship’s difficult first years folded in. The Navy plans to use the coming months at sea to test the ship’s unique systems and train the crew.
The milestone comes as HII carries a heavy naval workload. HII was also recently reported to have won a $5.1 billion contract to overhaul USS Harry S. Truman, and it shares a Navy order for medium unmanned surface vessels with Saronic and Galliano.
Next for CVN 79 is the transit to Norfolk and the start of Navy-led trials. HII has not said how long that testing will run, and the March 2027 delivery target remains the date to watch.
