Page 50: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 1985)

Gala launching of aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt at Newport News Shipbuilding, attended by nearly 23,000 people, featured release of 65,000 balloons and salutes by sirens and cannons.

Construction of 'Theodore Roosevelt'

Ahead Of Schedule And Under Budget

Advanced Computer Technology And Huge

Superlifts At Newport News Shipbuilding

Had At Launching Saved $42.1 Million

At the launching of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, New- port News Shipbuilding president and CEO Edward J. Campbell cited some of the advancements that allowed dramatic savings in time and money in the construction of the latest launched ship of the

Nimitz Class. These included com- puter technology, huge superlifts, and more experience in carrier con- struction.

He said, "The Roosevelt keel unit weighed 475 tons. It equaled nine keel assemblies on earlier Nimitz

Class carriers. The superlift unit you see behind me is the keel of the

Abraham Lincoln. It weighs 840 tons, almost twice as much as Roo- sevelt's keel. It's the equivalent of 20 such assemblies on older car- riers."

The 1,000+-foot-long, 93,000- ton Roosevelt seems to deserve her many accolades. Thanks to the use of extensive modular design and construction techniques, she is be- ing built far ahead of contract schedule. According to Secretary of

Defense Caspar Weinberger, principal speaker at the launching ceremony, the ship's construction was then 17 months ahead of sched- ule and $42.1 million under budget.

The Virginia shipyard got off to a fast start with the Theodore Roo- sevelt, the fourth of the Nimitz

Class carriers. The yard jumped ahead of schedule by completing in 23 months with the Roosevelt what it took 40 months to complete with her predecessor, the carrier Carl

Vinson. The Roosevelt is one of three Nimitz Class carriers now un- der construction at the yard; the others are the Abraham Lincoln and the George Washington.

Advanced technology has enabled progress to be accelerated since the

Roosevelt's keel was laid in late 1981. For the first time at the yard, engineers there used structural

Computer Aided Design/Computer

Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) to cut the steel for the carrier, help- ing speed fabrication dramatically.

Once the units came out of Steel

Fabrication, they were joined with other assemblies and preoutfitted with much of the piping, ventila- tion, and electrical equipment they would need.

Computers also controlled toler- ences and the manufacturing pro- cess so the modules fit together per- fectly once they were joined to the ship. The result: the accuracy built into the design function automati- cally transfers to the manufacturing side.

Another reason for the ahead-of- schedule performance is more ex- tensive use of the yard's 23-story, 900-ton-capacity gantry crane. With it the yard is building larger subas- semblies, and putting together the bigger units on assembly platens rather than in the drydock. It is much easier for this work to take place at the shop level.

Preoutfitting was greater on the

Roosevelt than on earlier carriers.

Doing advance work and lifting much larger sections results in fewer lifts and saves time and money. A superlift for the Roosevelt, for ex- ample, was between 700 and 900 metric tons. In erecting the ship's flight deck, which is 1,092 feet long and 257 feet, wide, 14 multi-ton assemblies were lowered into the drydock. On previous carriers, it took as many as 150 lifts to form the flight deck.

Advanced technology is also pay- ing off on the construction of the fifth and six Nimitz Class carriers at the Newport News yard. At mid- 1985, the construction of the Abra- ham Lincoln and the George Wash- ington was reported by the Navy to represent $450 million in savings.

Can computer technology, huge superlifts, and more carrier con- struction experience continue to pay dividends? Can the success story of the Theodore Roosevelt be topped?

Newport News Shipbuilding thinks so and continues to pursue every new option for increased efficiency and lower costs.

For further information on New- port News Shipbuilding and their facilities,

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