Five Years of No Action: Why Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carrier John C. Stennis Can’t Sail

Summary and key points you need to know: The overhaul and refueling of the USS John C. Stennis, originally scheduled for completion in August 2025, has been delayed by 14 months. The new target date is now set for October 2026.

– This delay is due to COVID-related staff and material shortages, combined with mandatory extension works following vessel condition assessments.

– The Stennis overhaul is expected to be the second-longest carrier overhaul since 2001, at 1,990 days. The Navy plans to improve the quality of life for sailors during the overhaul by learning from the lengthy and challenging refit of the USS George Washington, which lasted 2,120 days.

Navy’s USS Stennis Refueling Now Extended Through October 2026

USS John C. Stennis’s According to the U.S. Navy’s fiscal year 2025 budget, the overhaul and refueling will be delayed for another 14 months.

The renovation started in 2021 and was supposed to last until August 2025. However, now it is the case that Stennis will not be available until October 2026. The delay is due to COVID-related staffing and equipment shortages, Rear Admiral Casey Morton said.

Last April, NAVSEA said that the Stennis The delay was “due to both mandatory growth works following vessel condition assessments and challenges on the industrial base.”

The Navy hopes to apply the lessons learned from the USS George Washingtons latest revision.

“George Washington “The ship spent nearly six years in the Newport News shipyard before completing the Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH), with sailors working at the shipyard subjected to some of the harshest conditions in the military, according to a 2023 Navy investigation following the suicide of several sailors assigned to the carrier,” USNI reported.

Stennis is expected to be renovated faster than George Washingtonwith greater focus on sailor quality of life, but it will still be the second-longest maintenance overhaul of an aircraft carrier since 2001.

Following trends

Since 2001, the U.S. Navy has conducted seven aircraft carrier overhauls. The shortest overhaul was that of the USS Nimitzat 1,129 days. Four overhauls lasted between 1,338 and 1,506 days – USS Dwight D. EisenhowerUSS Carl VinsonUSS Theodore Rooseveltand USS Abraham Lincoln.

Stennis And George Washington are outliers. The Stennis The overhaul would take 1,990 days. George Washingtons revision took 2,120 days.

The Navy has asked for additional funding for Stennis sailors to live off the ship while the overhaul is completed. The funds are for “additional months of crew berthing and to provide more off-ship housing in apartments and barracks for sailors,” USNI reported, citing Navy budget documents. “Beginning with (Stennis) RCOH, no onboard housing is used for crew mooring for sailors during RCOH. In previous RCOH availabilities, crew relocation onboard occurred for nearly a year prior to redelivery.”

The additional funds are the result of a study that showed that the overhaul in the mid-1990s George Washington sailors had the “toughest standard of living in the U.S. military.” The study specifically found that Washington sailors faced challenges with “lack of parking, adequate housing and other amenities such as reliable Wi-Fi and healthy dining options.”

The Navy plans to build a $120 million garage that will add 2,800 parking spaces. Washington Seamen often had to use satellite parking lots, which sometimes added up to three hours to their commute to work.

Stennis was commissioned in 1995 and her RCOH will extend her life for several more decades. The seventh aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class, Stennis is nuclear powered and can operate for 20-25 years without refueling. The ship can accommodate a crew of 6,500 people. It can carry 90 aircraft, including F/A-18s, MH-60s and E-2Cs.

About the Author: Defense expert Harrison Kass

Harrison Kass is a defense and national security writer with over 1,000 articles on issues relating to world affairs. Harrison has been a lawyer, a pilot, a guitarist, and a minor professional hockey player. He joined the U.S. Air Force as a pilot trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.

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