When completed, the John F. Kennedy, the second Ford-class aircraft carrier produced by the men and women at Newport News Shipbuilding, will be the most advanced, most capable and most fearsome vessel in the nation’s arsenal.
The ship’s christening is scheduled for Saturday morning and that means a moment for celebration across Hampton Roads, home to the men and women who build these marvels as well as the women and men who serve aboard them.
The Ford class represents a great technological leap over its Nimitz-class predecessors. It should, being the first new carrier design introduced by the Navy in 25 years. And that’s true despite some nagging problems that continue to vex engineers.
These ships can be operated by smaller crews thanks to advanced automation. They are more powerful than the Nimitz class, with more advanced weaponry. And they provide the tactical advantages and force projection essential to modern warfare.
Ultimately, the Navy’s ships are only as reliable and effective as their design and construction. That’s why Hampton Roads should take tremendous pride in being the only place in the nation where these behemoths are produced.
Newport News Shipbuilding, owned and operated by Huntington Ingalls Industries, has a rich and storied history in the business of building carriers.
Though it didn’t produce the first Navy ship used to launch aircraft — that distinction is due the Norfolk Navy Shipyard in Portsmouth — Newport News Shipbuilding did build and deliver the first vessel designed as an aircraft carrier, the USS Ranger, in 1933.
Workers in the Peninsula shipyard built the three Yorktown-class carriers, a group that included the famous USS Enterprise, and nine of the 24 Essex-class ships that followed. Together, those vessels helped turn the tide of World War II in the Pacific theater.
Future classes of carriers followed, many built here in Hampton Roads by the hard-working people of this region. These ships were instrumental in combat operations around the world and helped make the U.S. Navy the most dominant force on the seas.
That includes an earlier USS Kennedy, built in Newport News and christened in 1967. Coincidentally, it was Caroline Kennedy, the 35th president’s oldest child and only daughter, who conducted the honors that day and it is she who will be doing so again on Saturday, at the event expected to draw thousands to the shipyard.
That record of success made the shipyard one of the most important and influential workplaces in Virginia. Newport News Shipbuilding is the largest industrial employer in the commonwealth, boasting more than 20,000 workers in its sprawling campus along the James River.
The people who walk through the gates each day hail from across the region and into northeastern North Carolina, making the shipyard a place that ties the area together with a common purpose. That bond is strengthened by the military installations here, since a welder for a ship’s construction may be neighbors with an officer who serves on that same vessel.
The jobs there are generally stable and pay well. What’s more, the shipyard has a distinguished program through The Apprentice School, which recently marked its centennial. From its humble beginnings, the school now prepares workers in a number of trades and for leadership roles, preparing them for rewarding, lasting careers.
There is a timeliness in that work, since the vessels built at the shipyard will be in service for decades. That includes the Kennedy, which will be a keystone as the Navy expands its force. Military commanders predict the conflicts to come will be in the Pacific as China flexes its muscle on the world stage, so a larger, more powerful and more advanced Navy should be an effective deterrent.
Protecting the nation remains the purpose at the heart of the shipyard’s work, and this is a week to cherish and celebrate that enviable legacy. May it long continue.