NAVY CREW BEGINS TRAINING IN COMPLETED SPACES ABOARD THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER JOHN F. KENNEDY (CVN 79)

NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE: HII) has reached an important milestone in the construction of the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) as the first of 2,700 compartments was turned over to the ship’s crew. The completed spaces allow sailors to begin training on the ship while final outfitting and testing progresses at the company’s Newport News Shipbuilding division.

Earlier this month, sailors assigned to the pre-commissioning unit began coming onboard the ship and working in some of the compartments, which include a training facility, offices and habitability spaces.

Turning over crew training areas earlier in Kennedy’s construction was a key lesson learned from the construction of USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). As a result, the Kennedy’s construction team was able to complete and turnover 63 compartments to the ship’s crew over four months earlier than on Ford.

“The first sailors coming onboard is a significant step in the life of the ship,” said Mike Butler, program director for Kennedy. “Our completing and turning over these spaces to the crew will allow them to start on-hands, shipboard training, and learn the systems and components they will operate when the ship joins the fleet.”

Christened and launched in December 2019, Kennedy continues to come to life.

Donny Dorsey (right), Ingalls DDG 119 ship program manager; Commander Matthew McKenna (center), DDG 119 prospective commanding officer; and Peter T. Christman III, DDG 51 Project Office, SUPSHIP Gulf Coast, practice safe social distancing while signing the DD 250 transferring custody of Delbert Black (DDG 119) to the United States Navy on Friday, April 24, at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss. Photo by Lance Davis/HII

Over the next two and a half years, other spaces, such as berthing and mess areas, will be completed, and distributive, mechanical and combat systems, such as catapults and radar arrays, will be tested.