The US Navy took preliminary acceptance of the future Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy from Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division on Tuesday, September 29.
The navy said the preliminary acceptance will enable the carrier and her crew to conduct additional evaluations and gain operational experience at sea as the shipbuilder completes its remaining systems tests. Formal delivery is planned for the spring of 2027.
The navy remarked that the carrier is approximately 99 per cent finished and that all major systems are complete. Testing remains on the final four advanced weapons elevators (AWEs), which move munitions from storage areas within the carrier to the flight deck where they can be loaded onto aircraft.
The ship has 11 AWEs in total.
Before the August acceptance trials, construction was complete on seven of those elevators, according to a navy notification to Congress cited by USNI News. Those elevators enabled the crew to reach every weapons magazine and continue training and certification.
The carrier had previously completed builder’s sea trials in February of this year. She entered acceptance trials in August, ahead of the September preliminary acceptance.
Navy budget documents identified elevator work and advanced arresting gear certification as factors that had delayed a previously planned 2025 delivery, USNI News reported in August.
Advanced arresting gear catches aircraft as they land on the carrier.
The second Ford-class carrier honours the late John F. Kennedy, who was President of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.
Prior to entering politics, the late President Kennedy had served as a US Navy officer and was the captain of the famed patrol torpedo boat PT-109 when it saw combat in the Pacific in World War II.
The ship is also the second aircraft carrier to be named after the late president.
She is tentatively scheduled for delivery to the navy in March 2027, while fitting out is expected to be completed by July of that year.
