Navy Moves on Carriers

The U.S. Navy made two announcements on January 15th relative to their carrier fleet. First Reuters reports that a contract worth $374 million was awarded to Northrop Grumman for initial engineering and long lead materials for the second Gerald Ford class ship. The last Nimitz class carrier, CVN-77 was commissioned this month and named for President George H. W. Bush. The Gerald Ford, CVN-78, is already under construction. This second carrier is currently unnamed although their is a movement to call it the USS Arizona. The Navy also announced as we had discussed in this previous post that a carrier would be based in Mayport, FL. The Miami Herald reports that the U.S. Navy Secretary formally designated Mayport as a home base for the ship. Construction of the necessary facilities will take at least five years.