Newly accepted by the Navy on a preliminary basis, the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) pulled away from Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia on Sept. 29, 2026, bound for Naval Station Norfolk. The move followed the Navy’s preliminary acceptance of the carrier from its builder that same day, which her builder calls the final step before formal delivery.
Kennedy is the second Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Preliminary acceptance is a step short of delivery: it lets the ship’s crew take her to sea for testing and training while the shipyard finishes the remaining work aboard.
HII, the shipyard’s parent company, announced the milestone in a Sept. 29 release, describing it as the final step before formal delivery and noting that the carrier completed acceptance trials in August. The release states that Kennedy departed the yard on Sept. 29 and will transition to Naval Station Norfolk. “It is an honor to see Kennedy depart and begin integration into the fleet,” said Bryan Caccavale, Newport News Shipbuilding’s vice president of program management.
What preliminary acceptance means for CVN 79
The Navy’s own account came from the Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Maritime, the office now responsible for delivering the service’s surface ships. Its Sept. 29 release, published by Seapower magazine, says preliminary acceptance “will allow the ship and its crew to conduct at-sea testing and build underway proficiency while the shipbuilder completes final ship systems testing prior to formal delivery of the ship in Spring 2027.”…