Story highlights
- The $12.9 billion aircraft carrier is the most expensive warship ever built
- Navy wants to spend $81.3 billion over next five years to build 38 warships, official says
(CNN)The most expensive warship ever built, the $12.9 billion aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), is expected to join the U.S. Navy's fleet in September, a Navy official says.
Sean
J. Stackley, the Navy's assistant secretary for acquisitions, gave the
timetable for the 100,000-ton, 1,100-foot-long supercarrier in testimony
prepared for the Senate Armed Services Committee on
Wednesday.
Wednesday.
As
of March, the Ford, on which construction began in 2009, was 97%
complete, Stackley said. He said the carrier is expected to begin sea
trials in July and be delivered to the Navy by Newport News Shipbuilding
two months later.
The ship is named after the 38th president,
who died in 2006. He served aboard the USS Monterey during World War II
and was discharged from the Navy as a lieutenant commander.
Stackley
said the next carrier in the Ford class, the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN
79), is scheduled to be launched in 2020. That ship was 18% percent
complete as of March, he said.
The third Ford-class carrier, the USS Enterprise (CVN 80), is set to begin construction in 2018, Stackley said.
The
timetable for the Navy's biggest warships came as Stackley gave
lawmakers the Navy's budget request for the next five years. The service
wants to spend $81.3 billion over that period to build 38 warships, he
said.
Included in that request are
the first replacement for the aging Ohio-class ballistic missile
submarines, nine Virginia-class attack submarines, 10 Arleigh
Burke-class destroyers and smaller numbers of other surface ships.
The goal of the building plan is to have a Navy battle force of 308 ships by 2021, according to Stackley's testimony.
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