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July 19 (UPI) -- Huntington Ingalls is receiving a $148.7 million modification to an existing contract for long lead time construction materials for the CVN 80 Enterprise aircraft carrier, the Department of Defense announced on Tuesday. The work will be conducted in Newport News, Va., and is expected to be completed by January 2024. Navy 2017 shipbuilding funis of $148.7 million will be obligated to the project.
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Long-lead-time materials are construction components and ship systems that require lengthy planning, development and work before they can be installed. Examples range from complex systems like shipboard nuclear power plants to the thousands of tons of steel needed to construct an aircraft carrier hull.
The Gerald R. Ford-class Enterprise will be the 8th ship to bear the name, which dates to the Revolutionary War. It includes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, CVN 65, and the World War II era CVN 6, the most decorated ship in U.S. naval history.
The Ford-class is the largest aircraft carrier ever built at over a 1,000 feet long and a displacement in excess of 100,000 tons. It has a standard crew of 4,539, including the air wing and staff, and can carry over 75 aircraft in a mix of fighter planes, helicopters, and support craft.
The vessel is powered by A1B nuclear reactors and can generate two-and-a-half times the electrical power of its Nimitz-class predecessor, giving it the capacity to mount future weapons and electronics like laser weapons. It also has an electro-magnetic aircraft launch system rather than standard steam-powered catapults.
The first in the class Gerald R. Ford was delivered in 2017 and is expected to serve for at least 50 years. The John F. Kennedy and Enterprise will be the next two to come online, pending construction, at a cost of over $13 billion per ship.
