Newport News Shipbuilding

File:Newport News Shipyard, aerial view, Oct 1994.jpeg

Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the sole designer, builder, and refueler of aircraft carriers and one of two providers of submarines for the United States Navy, founded as the Chesapeake Dry Dock and Construction Co. in 1886 and located in the city of Newport News, Virginia. Newport News Shipbuilding has built more than 800 ships, including both naval and commercial ships. Its facilities span more than {{convert|550|acre|km2}}.

The shipyard is a major employer for the lower Virginia Peninsula, portions of Hampton Roads south of the James River and the harbor, portions of the Middle Peninsula region, and even some northeastern counties of North Carolina.

The shipyard is building two {{sclass|Gerald R. Ford|aircraft carrier}}s: {{USS|John F. Kennedy|CVN-79}}, and {{USS|Enterprise|CVN-80}}.{{cite web|title=Enterprise (CVN 80) Advanced Planning Contract Awarded|url=http://newsroom.huntingtoningalls.com/releases/hii-awarded-152-million-advance-planning-contract-for-the-third-ford-class-aircraft-carrier-enterprise-cvn-80|access-date=August 6, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170806180658/http://newsroom.huntingtoningalls.com/releases/hii-awarded-152-million-advance-planning-contract-for-the-third-ford-class-aircraft-carrier-enterprise-cvn-80|archive-date=August 6, 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://mobile.navaltoday.com/2018/12/28/hii-gets-additional-228m-for-enterprise-cvn-80-long-lead-time-materials/|title=HII gets additional $228m for Enterprise (CVN-80) long lead time materials|publisher=navaltoday.com.|date=December 28, 2018|access-date=March 26, 2019}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

In 2013, Newport News Shipbuilding began the deactivation of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier {{USS|Enterprise|CVN-65}},{{cite web|title=HII Awarded $745 Million Contract to Inactivate USS Enterprise (CVN 65)|url=http://newsroom.huntingtoningalls.com/releases/photo-release-hii-awarded-745-million-contract-to-inactivate-uss-enterprise-cvn-65|access-date=June 28, 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150426054543/http://newsroom.huntingtoningalls.com/releases/photo-release-hii-awarded-745-million-contract-to-inactivate-uss-enterprise-cvn-65|archive-date=April 26, 2015}} which it also built.

Newport News Shipbuilding also performs refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) work on {{sclass|Nimitz|aircraft carrier|1}}s. This is a four-year vessel renewal program that involves refueling the vessel's nuclear reactors and performing modernization work. The yard has completed RCOH for five Nimitz-class carriers ({{USS|Nimitz}}, {{USS|Dwight D. Eisenhower}}, {{USS|Carl Vinson}}, {{USS|Theodore Roosevelt|CVN-71|6}} and {{USS|Abraham Lincoln|CVN-72|6}}).{{cite web|title=Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH)|url=http://nns.huntingtoningalls.com/products/carriers/rcoh/index|website=Newport News Shipbuilding|publisher=Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.|access-date=June 4, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501222432/http://nns.huntingtoningalls.com/products/carriers/rcoh/index|archive-date=May 1, 2016}} As of November 2017, this work was underway for the Nimitz-class vessel {{USS|George Washington|CVN-73|6}}.[http://nns.huntingtoningalls.com/videos/uss-george-washington-cvn73-arrives-rcoh/ USS George Washington CVN73 arrives for RCOH] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180513152115/http://nns.huntingtoningalls.com/videos/uss-george-washington-cvn73-arrives-rcoh/ |date=May 13, 2018 }}, Newport News Shipbuilding, Access date May 10, 2018

History

File:1899 Newport News Shipbuilding Co. advertisement.jpg

Industrialist Collis P. Huntington (1821–1900) provided crucial funding to complete the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (C&O) from Richmond, Virginia, to the Ohio River in the early 1870s. Although originally built for general commerce, this C&O rail link to the midwest was soon also being used to transport bituminous coal from the previously isolated coalfields, adjacent to the New River and the Kanawha River in West Virginia. In 1881, the Peninsula Extension of the C&O was built from Richmond down the Virginia Peninsula to reach a new coal pier on Hampton Roads in Warwick County near the small unincorporated community of Newport News Point. However, building the railroad and coal pier was only the first part of Huntington's dreams for Newport News.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

=The shipyard's early years=

File:SS Monroe launch 1902.png

File:Northrop Grumman Newport News 032007 001.png

File:NNSB-00522.jpg, 2020]]

In 1886, Huntington built a shipyard to repair ships servicing this transportation hub. In 1891 Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company delivered its first ship, the tugboat Dorothy. By 1897 NNS had built three warships for the US Navy: {{USS|Nashville|PG-7|6}}, {{USS|Wilmington|PG-8|2}} and {{USS|Helena|PG-9|2}}.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

When Collis died in 1900, his nephew Henry E. Huntington inherited much of his uncle's fortune. He also married Collis' widow Arabella Huntington, and assumed Collis' leadership role with Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. Under Henry Huntington's leadership, growth continued.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

In 1906 the revolutionary {{HMS|Dreadnought|1906|6}} launched a great naval race worldwide. Between 1907 and 1923, Newport News built six of the US Navy's total of 22 dreadnoughts – {{USS|Delaware|BB-28|6}}, {{USS|Texas|BB-35|2}}, {{USS|Pennsylvania|BB-38|2}}, {{USS|Mississippi|BB-41|2}}, {{USS|Maryland|BB-46|2}} and {{USS|West Virginia|BB-48|2}}. All but the first were in active service in World War II. In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt sent the Great White Fleet on its round-the-world voyage. NNS had built seven of its 16 battleships.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

In 1914 NNS built SS Medina for the Mallory Steamship Company; as {{MV|Doulos}} she was until 2009 the world's oldest active ocean-faring passenger ship.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

=Newport News and the shipyard=

File:NNS 41809.JPG

In the early years, leaders of the Newport News community and those of the shipyard were virtually interchangeable. Shipyard president Walter A. Post served from March 9, 1911, to February 12, 1912, when he died. Earlier, he had come to the area as one of the builders of the C&O Railway's terminals, and had served as the first mayor of Newport News after it became an independent city in 1896. It was on March 14, 1914, that Albert Lloyd Hopkins, a young New Yorker trained in engineering, succeeded Post as president of the company. In May 1915 while traveling to England on shipyard business aboard {{RMS|Lusitania}}, Hopkins died when that ship was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat{{cite web |title=Mr. Albert Lloyd Hopkins |url=http://www.rmslusitania.info/people/saloon/albert-hopkins/ |work=Saloon (First Class) Passenger List |date=July 25, 2011 |publisher=The Lusitania Resource |access-date=December 5, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120427020922/http://www.rmslusitania.info/people/saloon/albert-hopkins/ |archive-date=April 27, 2012 }} off Queenstown on the Irish coast. His assistant, Frederic Gauntlett, was also on board, but was able to swim to safety.{{cite web |last=Ruegsegger |first=Bob |title=Authenticity Regs & More |url=http://www.great-war-assoc.org/over_the_top.htm |publisher=Great War Association |access-date=December 5, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220132044/http://www.great-war-assoc.org/over_the_top.htm |archive-date=February 20, 2012 }} Homer Lenoir Ferguson was company vice president when Hopkins died, and assumed the presidency the following August.{{cite news|title=Ferguson Becomes Head of Shipbuilding Plant|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045389/1915-08-13/ed-1/seq-10/|access-date=August 13, 2015|work=Richmond Times-Dispatch|date=August 13, 1915|location=Richmond, Virginia|page=10|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20150813105502/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045389/1915-08-13/ed-1/seq-10/|archive-date=August 13, 2015}} He saw the company through both world wars, became a noted community leader, and was a co-founder of the Mariners' Museum with Archer Huntington. He served until July 31, 1946, after World War II had ended on both the European and Pacific fronts.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

File:Hilton Village.jpg

Just northwest of the shipyard, Hilton Village, one of the first planned communities in the country, was built by the federal government to house shipyard workers in 1918. The planners met with the wives of shipyard workers. Based on their input 14 house plans were designed for the projected 500 English-village-style homes. After the war, in 1922, Henry Huntington acquired it from the government, and helped facilitate the sale of the homes to shipyard employees and other local residents. Three streets there were named after Post, Hopkins, and Ferguson.{{cite web|title=Hilton Village 1969 Nomination Form, p2-3|url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/NewportNews/121-0009_Hilton_Village_1969_Final_Nomination.pdf|work=National Register of Historic Places Inventory|publisher=US Department of the Interior|access-date=December 5, 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120927015626/http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/NewportNews/121-0009_Hilton_Village_1969_Final_Nomination.pdf|archive-date=September 27, 2012}}

=Navy orders during and after World War I=

The Lusitania incident was among the events that brought the United States into World War I. Between 1918 and 1920 NNS delivered 25 destroyers, and after the war it began building aircraft carriers. {{USS|Ranger|CV-4|6}} was delivered in 1934, and NNS went on to build {{USS|Yorktown|CV-5|2}} and {{USS|Enterprise|CV-6|2}}.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

=Ocean liners=

After World War I NNS completed a major reconditioning and refurbishment of the ocean liner {{SS|Leviathan}}. Before the war she had been the German liner Vaterland, but the start of hostilities found her laid up in New York Harbor and she had been seized by the US Government in 1917 and converted into a troopship. War duty and age meant that all wiring, plumbing, and interior layouts were stripped and redesigned while her hull was strengthened and her boilers converted from coal to oil while being refurbished. Virtually a new ship emerged from NNS in 1923, and SS Leviathan became the flagship of United States Lines.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

In 1927 NNS launched the world's first significant turbo-electric ocean liner: Panama Pacific Line's {{GRT|17833}} {{SS|California|1928|6}}.{{cite news |url=http://cruiselinehistory.com/cruise-line-history-%E2%80%93-panama-pacific-lines-finished-from-1938-time-magazine-2/ |publisher=Michael L Grace |title=Panama Pacific Lines finished |newspaper=Time |date=May 9, 1938 |access-date=May 19, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20130520141839/http://cruiselinehistory.com/cruise-line-history-%E2%80%93-panama-pacific-lines-finished-from-1938-time-magazine-2/ |archive-date=May 20, 2013 }} At the time she was also the largest merchant ship yet built in the United States, although she was a modest size compared with the biggest European liners of her era. NNS launched California{{'}}s sister ships Virginia in 1928 and Pennsylvania in 1929. NNS followed them by launching two even larger turbo-electric liners for Dollar Steamship Company: the {{GRT|21936}} {{SS|President Hoover}} in 1930, followed by her sister {{SS|President Coolidge||2}} in 1931. {{SS|America|1939|6}} was launched in 1939 and entered service with United States lines shortly before World War II but soon returned to the shipyard for conversion to a troopship, USS West Point.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

=Navy orders before and during World War II=

File:Launch of USS Birmingham (CL-62) at Newport News Shipbuilding on 20 March 1942 (NH 75592).jpg

By 1940 the Navy had ordered a battleship, seven more aircraft carriers and four cruisers. During World War II, NNS built ships as part of the U.S. government's Emergency Shipbuilding Program, and swiftly filled requests for "Liberty ships" that were needed during the war. It founded the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, an emergency yard on the banks of the Cape Fear River and launched its first Liberty ship before the end of 1941, building 243 ships in all, including 186 Libertys. For its contributions during the war, the Navy awarded the company its "E" pennant for excellence in shipbuilding. NNS ranked 23rd among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts.{{cite book |last1=Peck |first1=Merton J |author1-link=Whiz Kids (Department of Defense) |last2=Scherer |first2=Frederic M |author2-link=Frederic M. Scherer |year=1962 |title=The Weapons Acquisition Process: An Economic Analysis |location=Boston, MA |publisher=Harvard Business Press |page=619}}

=Post-war ships=

In the post-war years NNS built the passenger liner {{SS|United States}}, which set a transatlantic speed record that still stands today. In 1954 NNS, Westinghouse and the US Navy developed and built a prototype nuclear reactor for a carrier propulsion system. NNS designed {{USS|Enterprise|CVN-65|6}} in 1960. In 1959 NNS launched its first nuclear-powered submarine, {{USS|Robert E. Lee|SSBN-601|6}}.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

In the 1970s, NNS launched two of the largest tankers ever built in the western hemisphere and also constructed three liquefied natural gas carriers – at over 390,000 deadweight tons, the largest ever built in the United States. NNS and Westinghouse Electric Company jointly formed Offshore Power Systems to build floating nuclear power plants for Public Service Electric and Gas Company.

In the 1980s, NNS produced a variety of Navy products, including {{sclass|Nimitz|aircraft carrier|0}} nuclear aircraft carriers and {{sclass|Los Angeles|submarine|0}} nuclear attack submarines. Since 1999 the shipyard has only produced warships for the Navy.{{cite web |title=Ships Built By Newport News Shipbuilding |url=http://nns.huntingtoningalls.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Ships_built_by_NNS.pdf |publisher=Huntington-Ingalls |access-date=July 16, 2018 |archive-date=February 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170207041048/http://nns.huntingtoningalls.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Ships_built_by_NNS.pdf |url-status=live }}

=Submarine building problems=

In 2007, the US Navy found that workers had used the incorrect metal to fuse together pipes and joints on submarines under construction and this could have eventually led to cracking and leaks. In 2009 it was found that bolts and fasteners in weapons-handling systems on four Navy submarines, {{USS|New Mexico|SSN-779|2}}, {{USS|North Carolina|SSN-777|2}}, {{USS|Missouri|SSN-780|2}}, and {{USS|California|SSN-781|2}}, were installed incorrectly, delaying the launching of the boats while the problems were corrected.Frost, Peter, "Northrop Moving Forward On Submarine Investigation", Newport News Daily Press, September 30, 2009.

=Mergers, realignment, and spin-off=

In 1968, Newport News merged with Tenneco Corporation. In 1996, Tenneco initiated a spinoff of Newport News into an independent company (Newport News Shipbuilding).{{cite web|url=http://www.northropgrumman.com/heritage/index.html|title=Our Heritage|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100316174653/http://www.northropgrumman.com/heritage/index.html|archive-date=March 16, 2010|access-date=February 18, 2009}} In 2001, General Dynamics made a second bid to purchase the company after a failed bid in 1999.{{cite web|url=https://money.cnn.com/2001/04/25/europe/general/index.htm|title=Shipbuilding deal floated |website=CNN Money |access-date=2024-02-11}} Such a merger would have eliminated competition for the production of Virginia-class submarines, which have only been made by Newport News and GD subsidiary Electric Boat. Northrop Grumman matched GD with a similar bid, and following a Department of Justice anti-trust lawsuit to block GD's bid, GD called off their bid.{{cite web|url=https://money.cnn.com/2001/10/26/deals/newport_gd/index.htm|title=General Dynamics calls off Newport bid|website=CNN Money|access-date=2024-02-11|archive-date=June 24, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230624130426/https://money.cnn.com/2001/10/26/deals/newport_gd/index.htm|url-status=live}} Now as the sole bidder, Northrop Grumman purchased the company for $2.6 billion and renamed it "Northrop Grumman Newport News".{{cite web|url=https://money.cnn.com/2001/11/08/deals/northrop_newport/index.htm|title=Northrop to buy Newport News for $2.6B – Nov. 8, 2001|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606085434/http://money.cnn.com/2001/11/08/deals/northrop_newport/index.htm|archive-date=June 6, 2011}} This division was merged with Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in 2008 and given the name "Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding".{{cite web |url=http://www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=134293 |title=Photo Release -- Northrop Grumman Announces Key Leadership and Organizational Changes |access-date=February 5, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080219212823/http://www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=134293 |archive-date=February 19, 2008 }} Three years later, the company was spun off as Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.,[http://www.globenewswire.com/newsarchive/hii/pages/news_releases.html?d=217512 America's Largest Military Shipbuilder Begins Operations as a New, Publicly Traded Company Under the Name of Huntington Ingalls Industries] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110530075304/http://www.globenewswire.com/newsarchive/hii/pages/news_releases.html?d=217512 |date=May 30, 2011 }} which trades under the symbol HII on the New York Stock Exchange.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

=Presidents=

Matt Mulherin (2011–2017){{cite web |url=https://www.pilotonline.com/business/shipyards/article_184efe6f-6c75-5cce-80df-792cb2133b75.html |title=Newport News Shipbuilding president Matt Mulherin to retire |website=The Virginian-Pilot |access-date=8 April 2021 |archive-date=April 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210409234027/https://www.pilotonline.com/business/shipyards/article_184efe6f-6c75-5cce-80df-792cb2133b75.html |url-status=live }}
Jennifer Boykin (2017–present){{cite web |url= https://www.pilotonline.com/inside-business/special-reports/vp-ib-power-list-boykin-20200518-uxhwcmf6sjaxvau5f6c3oajm4q-story.html |title= The Power List - Jennifer Boykin, president, Newport News Shipbuilding |website= Inside Business |access-date= 8 April 2021 |archive-date= March 3, 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210303121308/https://www.pilotonline.com/inside-business/special-reports/vp-ib-power-list-boykin-20200518-uxhwcmf6sjaxvau5f6c3oajm4q-story.html |url-status= live }}

Ships built

File:Northrop Grumman Newport News 032007 tugboat dorothy.png|Dorothy

File:USS Virginia LOC npcc 32728.jpg|Virginia

File:USS_Texas-2.jpg|Texas

File:Moore-McCormack-Good-Neighbor-passenger-liner.jpg|California

File:USS Newport News (CA-148) underway in the Mediterranean Sea on 9 September 1957.jpg|Newport News

File:USS Shark SSN 591.jpg|Shark

File:USS Mississippi (CGN-40).JPG|Mississippi

File:USS Montana (SSN-794) conducts initial sea trials in the Atlantic Ocean on 1 February 2022 (220201-O-NO101-150).JPG|Montana

File:USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) underway in the Atlantic Ocean on 9 October 2022 (221009-N-TL968-1248).JPG|Gerald R. Ford

class="wikitable nowraplinks sortable"

!style="text-align: left;"|Launch Date

!style="text-align: left;"|Yard No.

!style="text-align: left;"|Ship

!style="text-align: left;"|Class and type

!style="text-align: left;"|Operator

!style="text-align: left;"|Notes

!style="text-align: left;"|Ref

1891

| {{ship

Dorothy|1891 tug|2}}

| Shipyard's first vessel, delivered in 1891, on display in yard.

March 24, 1898

| {{USS|Kearsarge|BB-5|2}}

| {{sclass|Kearsarge|battleship}}