The Navy announced Tuesday that it is seeking a construction bid covering two new nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, one of which will eventually replace the San Diego-based USS Carl Vinson.
The Navy requested a proposal covering the future Ford-class carriers CVN 80 and CVN 81 from Newport News Shipbuilding, the only yard that can build the giant warships.
The two-ship buy is a contracting strategy the Navy used in the 1980s to procure Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and achieve significant acquisition cost savings compared to contracting for the vessels individually.
“In keeping with the National Defense Strategy, the Navy developed an acquisition strategy to combine the CVN 80 and CVN 81 procurements to better achieve the department’s objectives of building a more lethal force with greater performance and affordability,” said James F. Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.
CVN 80, the future USS Enterprise, will be the third ship of the Ford class and replace the USS Eisenhower.
The as yet unnamed CVN 81 will replace the Carl Vinson, the carrier named for the Congressman who created the modern Navy and the ship from which terrorist Osama bin Laden was buried at sea.