CRUCIAL FOR CARRIERS
THE SHIPYARD HAS BEEN INTEGRAL TO THE LOCAL AREA FOR OVER A CENTURY
Newport News Shipbuilding is Virginia’s largest industrial employer and a core component of the local economy.
Located on the southeastern tip of the Peninsula, the company began operations in 1886, founded by railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington. The shipyard has gone through several owners, but in 2011 it was spun off from Northrop Grumman as part of a new shipbuilding company, Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., which has its headquarters in Newport News.
It employs more than 20,000 people and is home to Virginia’s largest labor union, United Steelworkers Local No. 8888.
Huntington Ingalls also owns Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss. It builds amphibious warships, destroyers and Coast
Guard cutters.
The Newport News shipyard’s long history is highlighted prominently in front of executive offices on Washington Avenue, where a restored version of the tugboat Dorothy, built in 1890, stands.
It is the country’s sole designer, builder and refueler of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, which are based at Naval Station Norfolk, at West Coast bases and in Japan. It is one of two manufacturers of nuclearpowered submarines.
The yard also performs midlife refueling and overhauls of aircraft carriers, a major job that happens at the midpoint of their 50-year service lives. A defense expert at RAND Corp. said it “may be the most challenging engineering and industrial task undertaken anywhere by any organization.”
It builds Virginia-class submarines in partnership with General Dynamics Electric Boat of Groton, Conn.
The shipyard has recently gone though some tough times, but its future is on the upswing.
Between September 2015 and February 2016, about 1,200 Newport News workers lost their jobs due to a temporary but significant drop in workload. But the yard is hiring again, and shipbuilders hope to reap the benefits of a proposed expansion of the Navy fleet.
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence visited the shipyard in 2017. Trump spoke about his plans to expand the fleet to 355 ships, up from about 270, while Pence attended the christening of the submarine named for his home state, the Indiana.
The aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, the first of a new class of ship, was delivered to the Navy in 2017. Work continues on the next two Ford-class ships, the John F. Kennedy and the Enterprise.
Newport News employers are also decommissioning the former USS Enterprise, which was retired from service in late 2012. The Enterprise was the world’s first nuclear-powered carrier.
The aircraft carrier USS George Washington is currently undergoing a midlife overhaul.
The yard has embarked on a major infrastructure investment in the north end of the yard that is meant to increase efficiency in building both aircraft carriers and submarines.