New carrier won't be done, but commissioning goes on

Tugboats will pull the George H.W. Bush, the 10th and final aircraft carrier in the Nimitz class, to its January commissioning, the Navy and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding said Thursday.

The big carrier should have sailed under its own power from the Newport News shipyard to Norfolk Naval Station for the Jan. 10 ceremony.

It is not ready for delivery, said Margaret Mitchell-Jones, a Northrop Grumman spokeswoman. In the past, the Navy has delayed the ceremony, which marks the ship's official entry into the Navy fleet. But not this time.

Navy Secretary Donald Winter set the date earlier this year, and changing it now would be too costly and difficult, said Lt. Clay Doss, a Navy spokesman. A long list of VIPs is invited, including former presidents, top Navy leadership and the Bush family.

"This entailed significant planning and communications, and travel arrangements for thousands of entities," Doss said. "There are a lot of moving parts here that we're not looking to derail."

The $6.3 billion ship was originally scheduled for completion in April, but Northrop Grumman, the sole builder of nuclear-powered carriers for the Navy, has delayed it three times.

"Labor shortages, late material deliveries of key components and late delivery of commodities" are responsible, Doss said.

"We just ran out of days on the calendar to accomplish this effort before the commissioning ceremony," Mitchell-Jones said.

The Bush is 97 percent complete and should be finished by the end of March, she said. Painting, labeling of spaces, systems testing and sea trials remain.

The ship has to pass two sets of trials before official delivery to the Navy: the builder's testing of the ship's primary systems, including its steering gear, propulsion system and anchoring equipment, and a test drive by the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey.

"It's the Navy's ultimate decision to accept and take delivery," Doss said. "That won't happen until we've had a successful set of trials."

The day the carrier is commissioned, it will be given the status "In Commission, Special." This allows it to take the name USS George H.W. Bush but means the Navy still won't "own" it yet.

Once the trials are over and the Navy is satisfied, it will accept delivery of the ship. At that point, it will officially join the fleet and be given the same status as other active carriers: "In Commission, Full."

This is not the first time a ship has been commissioned before delivery, Doss said. It has happened with 15 previous ships, the most recent being the Los Angeles-class submarine Chicago, in 1986.

Northrop Grumman doesn't yet know whether the delay will result in extra costs or penalties for the shipyard, Mitchell-Jones said. The carrier's price has already grown 37 percent from the $4.6 billion budget Congress set in 1998. Construction began at the shipyard in 2001.

Acquiring ships on time and on budget has become a major issue for the Navy as it works toward a 313-ship fleet. The last carrier built by Northrop Grumman, the Ronald Reagan, had its commissioning delayed two months and was 28 percent over budget. The Navy commissioned the Reagan in 2003.

In designing the Bush, "roughly 70 percent" of the drawings were changed relative to the Reagan, Doss said. New features include a redesigned island, environmental upgrades, paint-system improvements and changes in the equipment the ship uses to launch and recover aircraft.

At peak production, the shipyard had about 4,000 employees working 24 hours a day on the Bush. There are now about 1,000 shipbuilders assigned to the carrier, Mitchell-Jones said.

"Northrop Grumman shipbuilders and the United States Navy have worked diligently to drive to completion and we are very proud of this ship and its capabilities," she said in a statement. "All of our shipbuilders are committed to delivering to the warfighter a best-of-class ship within the appropriate time frame."

The Navy has not yet designated a homeport for the Bush. Politicians in Hampton Roads and Florida are vying for the vessel and the economic boost it will bring its homeport. Mayport Naval Station currently cannot accommodate nuclear-powered carriers.

The flattop's propulsion plant still needs testing, so tugs will help it move from the shipyard to Norfolk Naval Station on Monday. There it will wait for it s big day Jan. 10.

Former President George H.W. Bush, a retired Navy aviator, will attend the ceremony.

"This may be the nicest thing that's ever happened to me," Bush said during a 2006 visit to the Newport News shipyard. "They've named this ship after me and I'm not even dead yet... I feel no sense of entitlement nor sense of possession - simply pride and honor."

Kathy Adams, (757) 446-2583, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com