WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Navy's Enterprise aircraft carrier will be the third of the Gerald Ford class, according to published reports. The Enterprise is scheduled to be commissioned in 2025.
"Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News Shipbuilding (HII-NNS) Inc., Newport News, Virginia, is being awarded a $148,728,722 contract for the purchase of additional long-lead-time material in support of Enterprise (CVN 80)," the release said Tuesday.
Long lead time material refers to the components of a system for which the time to design and fabricate it take the longest, according to published defense acquisition documents. As a result, providing funding for those materials locks the price in to avoid having to pay for them later when prices may have risen.
