Initially spotted by various ship spotter accounts on X, and later confirmed in a post by HII, the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) aircraft carrier departed Newport News Shipbuilding on January 28th en route for her first round of Sea Trials.
Reported by USNI News, the second Gerald R. Ford-class Nuclear Carrier was slated to leave January of this year for sea trials, with HII Newport News shipyard reporting significant progress made towards delivery of the vessel. Following Sea Trials, U.S Navy’s Fiscal year 2025 budget documentation slates the vessel for delivery to the Navy sometime in March of 2027, with the CVN-79’s fitting out completed by July of 2027.
CVN-79’s delivery date was delayed two years, with the original delivery date scheduled in 2025. According to U.S Shipbuilding Budget documentation, the delay is to ensure completion of work regarding the certification of the Advanced Arresting Gear systems and, “continued Advanced Weapons Elevator (AWE) work.” It was noted that the gap would leave the United States with only 10 Nuclear Powered super carriers, in lieu of the USS Nimitz’s (CVN-68) retiring following her final cruise in 2025, drawing a 50 year service life to a close.
CVN-79 is the second vessel to bear the name of the late President John F. Kennedy, with the first USS John. F Kennedy being CV-67, a Kitty Hawk class conventionally powered carrier. CV-67 was retired in 2007, with the hull traveling to Brownsville Texas early in 2025 to be scrapped following the sale of her and her sister (the USS Kitty Hawk) to International Ship-breaking Limited.
Ships in the Class
Following the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), and USS John F. Kennedy, two additional CVN-78-class vessels are under construction at Newport News. The USS Enterprise (CVN-80) and the USS Doris Miller (CVN-81) were awarded in a two year buy following the ordering of the original two Ford Class carriers, with CVN-80 laid down in 2022 and fitting out scheduled to finish a decade later.
A number of delays have plagued the construction of the class, setting back construction of the vessels enough to create a 10 year gap between the delivery of CVN-78 (2017) and CVN-79 (2027). However, the gap between the delivery of CVN-79 and CVN-80 is on track to be much shorter, with the USS Enterprise scheduled to follow the Kennedy into service only ~3.5 years later.
The JFK will be the first Gerald R. Ford-class hull to sport RTX’s AN/SPY-6(V)3 array, an iteration of the same radar outfitting the U.S Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. AN/SPY-6(V)3 leverages the modularity of the SPY-6 family of radars, with each array assembled of modular radar modular assemblies (RMAs or) which contain an integrative radar antenna system in a series of boxes which allows the size and power to be adjusted to fit each series of vessels.
In addition to new radars, all of the vessels also contain a new Electromagnetic Aircraft Launching System (EMALS) designed by General Atomics, which have taken over from steam power on all 4 aircraft catapults. In addition to EMALS, a new arresting wire system, the Advanced Arresting Gear, has also been fitted, alongside new technology throughout the ship including new weapon elevators systems. However, all of these three new systems have faced operability issues in the past, causing notable delays in the delivery of the Ford and JFK.
Specifications
Physical Specs:
- Length: 1,092 Feet (332.9 Meters)
- Beam: 134 Feet (40.84 Meters)
- Flight Deck Width: 256 feet (78 meters)
- Displacement: ~100,000 tons (90718.5 metric tons) full load
- Top Speed: 30+ knots
Other Specs:
- Airwing: 75+ Aircraft Embarked
- Aircraft Type: F/A-18-E/F Block 3 fighters, E-2D Advanced Hawkeye AEW/C, EA-18G Growler Electronic Attack, C-2A Greyhounds (Cargo), and MH-60S/R Helicopters
- Aircraft launch and recovery systems: 4 x EMALS and 1 x AAG
- Crew Complement: ~4,550
- Propulsion: 2 Bechtel A1B Nuclear Reactors
- Defensive Armament: 2 x RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile Launchers, 2 x RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile Launchers, 3 x Phalanx CIWS gun mounts
