Carrier Enterprise at Newport News Shipbuilding

A graphic showing what the future USS Enterprise (CVN-80) is expected to look like when she joins the fleet after 2025. The aircraft are F-35C Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters, F/A-18 E and F Super Hornet strike fighters, E-2D Hawkeye electronic warfare planes, and an unmanned strike jet modeled on the X-47B sitting on the No. 4 catapult. U.S. Navy graphic.

BY BECCA MITCHEL

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Huntington Ingalls will host a ceremonial first-cut-of-steel event August 24 to kick off construction of the new aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN 80) at Newport News Shipbuilding.

The ship’s sponsors, Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky, will be present at the event, along with shipbuilders, local officials and members of the U.S. Navy.

The Enterprise will be the third Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier. The flagship USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) was built at Newport News Shipbuilding and delivered to the Navy in July. Construction has been underway on the John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) since 2015, with a commissioning expected for 2020.

The Enterprise will be the ninth U.S. Navy ship to bear the name. It’s the Navy aircraft carrier since the Kitty Hawk-class USS America to not be named for a person.

The former USS Enterprise (CVN 65) was also built at Newport News Shipbuilding and the world’s first nuclear powered aircraft carrier. The ship was last homeported in Norfolk before being deactivated in December 2012. She was officially decommissioned in January 2017.

Some of the steel from the USS Enterprise is being recycled to be used in the construction of the new Enterprise.