Newport News Shipbuilding

Aerial view of the Newport News shipyard in 1994. Visible in the drydocks are USS Long Beach and USNS Gilliland

Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the sole designer, builder, and refueler of aircraft carriers and one of two providers of submarines for the United States Navy. Founded as the Chesapeake Dry Dock and Construction Co. in 1886, Newport News Shipbuilding has built more than 800 ships, including both naval and commercial ships. Located in the city of Newport News, Virginia, its facilities span more than 550 acres (2.2 km2).

The shipyard is a major employer, not only for the lower Virginia Peninsula, but also portions of Hampton Roads south of the James River and the harbor, portions of the Middle Peninsula region, and even some northeastern counties of North Carolina.

The shipyard is building two Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers: USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), and USS Enterprise (CVN-80).[1][2]

In 2013, Newport News Shipbuilding began the deactivation of the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise (CVN-65),[3] which it also built.

Newport News Shipbuilding also performs refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) work on Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. This is a four-year vessel renewal program that not only involves refueling of the vessel's nuclear reactors but also includes modernization work. The yard has completed RCOH for five Nimitz-class carriers (USS Nimitz, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, USS Carl Vinson, USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Abraham Lincoln).[4] As of November 2017 this work was underway for the sixth Nimitz-class vessel, USS George Washington.[5]

  1. ^ "Enterprise (CVN 80) Advanced Planning Contract Awarded". Archived from the original on August 6, 2017. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
  2. ^ "HII gets additional $228m for Enterprise (CVN-80) long lead time materials". navaltoday.com. December 28, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2019.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ "HII Awarded $745 Million Contract to Inactivate USS Enterprise (CVN 65)". Archived from the original on April 26, 2015. Retrieved June 28, 2013.
  4. ^ "Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH)". Newport News Shipbuilding. Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. Archived from the original on May 1, 2016. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
  5. ^ USS George Washington CVN73 arrives for RCOH Archived May 13, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Newport News Shipbuilding, Access date May 10, 2018