The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier Stennis has been decommissioned for 5 years.

Summary and Key Points: The USS John C. Stennis’s overhaul and refueling, initially set for completion by August 2025, will now extend to October 2026 due to COVID-related delays and industrial challenges.

-With this expansion, the carrier repair is the second largest work since 2001. By reconstructing the USS George Washington as a model, the U.S.S. The Navy is providing off-board housing for the welfare of its sailors.

• Stennis’s RCOH, which entered service in 1995, will add several decades to its lifespan.

Aircraft Carrier USS Stennis Refueling Overhaul: What You Need to Know

U.S. According to the Navy’s fiscal year 2025 budget, the USS John C. The refit and refueling of the Stennis will take an additional 14 months longer than expected.

Renovations were scheduled to begin in 2021 and be completed in August 2025. But as of now, Stannis won’t be accessible until October 2026. Rear Adm. Casey Morton said the reason was a shortage of staff and supplies related to Covid-19. delay

NAVSEA said in April of last year that Stennis was delayed due to “mandatory augmentation work following an assessment of the ship’s condition, as well as industrial infrastructure challenges.”

Lessons learned from the most recent overhaul of the USS George Washington are intended to be applied by the Navy.

George Washington spent six years at the Newport News yard before the sailors who worked there completed RCOH (Refueling and Complex Overhaul).Following the suicides of several sailors assigned to the carrier, a 2023 Navy investigation found that the shipyard faced some of the worst conditions in the military, as reported by the USNI.

Tracking trends

The US Navy has overhauled seven carriers since 2001. USS Nimitz’s fastest repair lasted 1129 days. USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, USS Carl Vinson, USS Theodore Roosevelt, and USS Abraham Lincoln made four overhauls lasting 1,338 to 1,506 days.

George Washington and Stennis are exceptions. The Stennis renewal period is 1,990 days. George Washington’s conversion took 2,120 days.

To allow the Stennis crew to stay off the ship while repairs are being made, the Navy has asked for more funding. According to the USNI, which cites Navy budget documents, the money is “to provide additional months of crew berthing and more off-ship housing in apartment vice barracks for sailors.” “According to the [Stennis] RCOH, crews berthing sailors during RCOH do not use any on-board housing. In RCOH availabilities, crew move-aboard occurred nearly a year before the ship re-delivered.”

The additional funding is the result of an inquiry that discovered that George Washington sailors had the “hardest living conditions in the U.S. military” at mid-overhaul. The inquiry found that sailors in Washington faced “lack of parking, adequate housing and other amenities such as reliable Wi-Fi and healthy food options”.

A $120 million garage that would provide 2,800 parking spaces is being planned by the Navy. Washington sailors often had to use satellite parking facilities, which meant commuting to work could take up to three hours.

Stennis was commissioned in 1995 and her RCOH will allow her to continue serving for several more decades. Stennis, the seventh Nimitz-class carrier, has nuclear propulsion and can operate without refueling for 20 to 25 years. The ship has space for 6,500 crew members. Up to 90 aircraft can fit inside, including F/A-18s, MH-60s and E-2Cs.

About the Author: Defense Expert Harrison Kass 

The author of more than 1,000 articles on international politics, Harrison Kass specializes in writing on the military and national security. Harrison is a pilot, lawyer, guitarist, and former minor league hockey player. He joined the US Air Force as a trainee pilot but was later medically discharged. Harrison holds an MA from New York University, a JD from the University of Oregon, and a BA from Lake Forest College.

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