The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush (CVN-77) arrived at Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) on Thursday in advance of a 28-month long dry-docking planned incremental availability (DPIA).
This will be the first time CVN-77 is not on the water since 2006 and is expected to be the “most extensive maintenance period for the ship yet” and one of the most complex carrier availabilities in recent NNSY history, the Navy said.
The Bush was delivered to the Navy 10 years ago.
The DPIA is estimated to take about 1.3 million man-days, split among 775,000 shipyard workforce man-days and the rest made of ship’s force, alteration installation teams, and contractor work.
The Navy said DPIA team members will use advanced technologies during the maintenance work like exoskeleton suits, additive manufacturing/3-D printing, laser scanners to create virtual rigging paths, and the development of training models using virtual reality.
CVN-77 Project Superintendent Jeff Burchett said he worked to incorporate lessons learned from visiting the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard when it was conducting similar work on the USS Nimitz (CVN-68).
“There are a lot of first-time jobs all around, given this is the first time Bush has sat on keel blocks since being built. With the size of this work package, it will take a total team effort by Norfolk Naval Shipyard,” Burchett said in a statement.
This will be the first time many members of the project team will be working on a dry-docked carrier and the Bush will be the first carrier docked at NNSY in years.
“We have new supervisors, new zone managers, new assistant project superintendents. This is a great chance for teaching and mentoring people in new positions how to execute and perform to their top potential,” Burchett said.
The Navy said the NNSY team has been preparing for the CVN-77 availability for 18 months.
Last week at the AFCEA West 2019 conference, Vice Adm. Thomas Moore, commander of Naval Sea Systems Command, said he did not think CVN-77 will have the same delays in maintenance completion that the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) did at NNSY (Defense Daily, Feb. 19).
In September, the Navy said CVN-69 would continue undergoing maintenance nearly a year after its original six-month availability was set to end, going into early 2019 (Defense Daily, Sept. 24, 2018).
The Eisenhower first arrived in Norfolk in August 2017 in preparation for an expected six-month Planned Incremental Availability (PIA) maintenance and upgrade period (Defense Daily, Aug. 16, 2017).
In contrast, Moore noted the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) finished its availability 25 days early and the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) undocked early ahead of its delivery in May.
“I think Ike’s an outlier, we’re going to get to prove that out in spades here when the Bush comes in a for a 28-month availability,” Moore said.
This 28-month availability stands in contrast to the USS Nimitz, which is finishing a 15-month docking planned incremental availability at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Wash., that stated in March 2018. CVN-68’s availability followed a six-month deployment while CVN-77 has never undergone a dry docking availability.