![The Need for [U.S. Navy Shipbuilding] Speed](https://images.marinelink.com/images/maritime/w300h300c/the-worlds-largest-aircraft-carrier-142587.jpg)
The Navy wants, and needs, more ships; but it can’t build them fast enough.While the U.S. Navy aims to achieve a 355-ship fleet, it is decommissioning older (and some not so old) ships at about the same rate it's adding new ones.A Congressional Research Service report stated that, as of April 17, 2023, the Navy included 296 battle force ships.
HII announced today that its Newport News Shipbuilding division (NNS) recently began topside testing of the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) on aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy (CVN 79).EMALS, first integrated into USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), replaces the existing steam catapults currently in use on the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.
HII announced its Newport News Shipbuilding division has begun production at an additional campus in Norfolk, Va. to support the shipyard’s continued progress toward more effective and efficient shipbuilding.The Newport News Shipbuilding Norfolk Campus is located on land leased from Fairlead in the Lambert’s Point area, at a development known as Fairwinds Landing.