Ninth of its name: HII, Navy lays the keel for next Enterprise

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — With its predecessor sitting just miles away in another part of the shipyard, HII Newport News Shipbuilding today ceremonially laid the keel for the future USS Enterprise (CVN-80), the third aircraft carrier in the Ford-class program.

The new carrier, sponsored by Olympic athletes Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky, will be the ninth in the US Navy’s history to bear the name “Enterprise” (and not including the iconic starship from “Star Trek”). The Olympians were selected to sponsor the ship in 2016 by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and are the first athletes to receive the honor.

During her speech, Ledecky, who knows something about the water with seven Olympic gold medals, talked about her philosophy for swimming and compared it to the challenges the shipbuilders must overcome while constructing the centerpiece of the Navy’s fleet. She also spoke about her grandfather who was a Navy corpsman assigned to the Marines in the Pacific theater during World War II.

“I have Navy in my blood,” she told a small group of reporters following the ceremony. “I wish he could be here but he passed several years ago… I know my grandmother, his wife, was watching today and that’s really special to me.”

Biles was not able to attend the event in person, but filmed a video in which she signed initials to one of the steel plates that were eventually engraved by two welders from Newport News Shipbuilding. Also in attendance were several congressmen from the Virginia delegation; Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander of US Fleet Forces; as well as numerous retired Navy sailors who served on the older Enterprise (CVN-65), nicknamed “The Big E.”

Keel laying ceremonies originated when the service still built wooden ships. But modern keel layings involve the shipbuilder, in this case HII, engraving the initials of the sponsors into a steel plates that sit at a “place of honor” on the ship.

“The tradition of laying a ship’s keel can be traced back to the first ship built by the United States Navy,” Newport News Shipbuilding President Jennifer Boykin told the crowd. “Built from the bottom up, the central timber was laid down to signify the start of her construction.”

Although shipbuilders routinely hold ceremonies to honor the sponsors and the workforce, the company effectively laid CVN-80’s keel in early April when it moved the first unit — part of the ship’s aft — into the dry dock. Officials told reporters that event took place three weeks ahead of schedule.

Navy and industry officials on Friday also said that although the Enterprise, and the fourth ship in the Ford class, the Doris Miller, still remain in the nascent stages of construction, they are already eyeing acquisition strategies for the Navy’s next two carriers.

The decision to pursue two more aircraft carriers, and how to do it, will ultimately fall to Congress, but in the meantime, the Navy must make a decision for how to dispose of the old Enterprise (CVN-65), the service’s first nuclear aircraft carrier.

The Navy is currently working through a process that assesses the environmental impacts of the disposal — a time consuming event, but one that is legally required — before it comes to a final decision.

During today’s ceremony, Boykin said that the old carrier will live on in the new ship both through name and material: Parts of the old ship — roughly 20,000 pounds of steel thus far — have been salvaged and repurposed for inclusion into the newer vessel’s construction.