Newport News Shipbuilding hits milestone with dual Ford-class carrier builds

Newport News Shipbuilding is making history this year with its development of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, as for the first time, it is building two Gerald R. Ford-class carriers simultaneously in the same dry dock.

Huntington Ingalls Industries, NNS’ parent company, announced in November 2024 that NNS had successfully transferred the mid-body hull section of aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. HII began construction on the Enterprise in 2017 and held a keel-laying ceremony in 2022.

The shipyard reported that on Oct. 31, 2024, it initiated a process of slowly filling the dry dock with more than 100 million gallons of water — marking the first time the Enterprise was floated. The carrier was then transferred to the west end of the dry dock, where construction on the ship is ongoing. The relocation of the Enterprise will allow NNS to begin assembling the USS Doris Miller in the east end of the dry dock later this year.

“It is only fitting for this Enterprise, CVN 80, to be part of a historic first at NNS, considering the previous Enterprise, CVN 65, was the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, proudly built here at the shipyard,” Les Smith, vice president of the Enterprise and Doris Miller aircraft carrier programs, said in a statement. “Thousands of dedicated shipbuilders are working with urgency on these aircraft carriers that we know will play a vital role in the Navy’s fleet.”

NNS said in March that it is integrating additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, into the shipbuilding process and that the shipyard successfully used this technique to build a valve manifold assembly on the Enterprise. The assembly allows distribution of a single source of fluid to multiple points on the ship and is installed in a pump room. The shipyard has similar manifolds planned for the Doris Miller, named after a late sailor who was the first Black recipient of the Navy Cross. He shot down at least one plane during World War II and helped carry wounded soldiers to safety during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

The two aircraft carriers are part of NNS’ $15.2 billion multi-ship contract awarded by the Navy in 2019. The Enterprise is expected to be delivered to the Navy in 2029, while Doris Miller is expected to be delivered in 2032.

NNS delivered the first-in-class USS Gerald R. Ford to the Navy in May 2017. The second-in-class, John F. Kennedy, is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy sometime this year, after missing a June 2024 deadline.

NNS spokesperson Todd Corrillo describes the simultaneous construction of the Enterprise and Doris Miller as one of the most significant recent developments at the shipbuilder, the largest industrial employer in Virginia. Another major milestone from the company is HII’s purchase of a metal fabrication plant in South Carolina in January.

“This acquisition increased our workforce by approximately 500 highly trained personnel, and we plan by 2027 to increase employment significantly at this site, a 480,000-square-foot facility,” CEO Chris Kastner said during a February earnings call. The plant, now part of NNS, is working on aircraft carrier components.

Finding shipbuilders

Thousands of shipyard workers are involved in the construction of the Enterprise and the Miller crafts, Corillo says, and NNS acknowledged last year that it needed to hire about 3,000 skilled workers in 2024 for Navy shipbuilding needs, as well as 16,000 more in the next decade.

The shipyard met its 2024 goal, Kastner confirmed in the February earnings call, and he said he expects HII to hire around the same number of people this year. However, the company has shifted its focus from entry-level employees to hiring more experienced people “that have chosen shipbuilding as a career,” Kastner said.

The Hampton Roads Workforce Council has made significant efforts to recruit maritime talent for the past several years, including people leaving the military. The council received an $11 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration in 2022 to develop a maritime talent pipeline known as the Regional Workforce Training System, and in 2023 won a $14 million grant to support regional workforce initiatives related to the U.S. Navy’s Submarine Industrial Base and related industries.

Council CEO Shawn Avery says that as of February, more than 1,740 people have enrolled in maritime job training as part of the initiative, and approximately 1,420 have finished. He said a “big portion” of those who complete training decide to work for NNS.

“The system is really growing to meet that continuing demand of the subs and the aircraft carriers and everything associated with maritime,” Avery says.

There used to be a lack of common knowledge about what types of maritime jobs were available and not enough opportunities to train workers, Avery notes, but the regional training system is making strides to change that. “We still have to continue to make sure that we’re building the pipeline, but I think we’re starting to really put a system in place that’s making a difference.”