U.S Navy’s USS Harry S. Truman Begins $5.1 Billion Refuelling And Complex Overhaul At Newport News

The US Navy’s aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman has arrived at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia for a nearly $5.1 billion overhaul.

The 30-year-old nuclear-powered Nimitz-class carrier will undergo a refuelling and complex overhaul, known as RCOH.

The work will prepare the ship for the next part of its service life and is expected to keep it in service for more than 50 years.

The Pentagon awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) a fixed-ceiling incentive contract worth nearly $5.1 billion for the work. Contract options could take the total value of the deal to $5.183 billion.

The overhaul is expected to be finished by November 2031.

The RCOH will include refuelling the carrier’s nuclear reactors and carrying out repairs and upgrades across the ship.

Workers will defuel and refuel the power plant. They will also repair the propellers, sea chests, shafts and rudders. The hull and freeboard will be blasted and painted.

Work will also take place in thousands of compartments and tanks and on most of the ship’s systems. The propulsion plant and combat systems will receive major upgrades.

An RCOH makes up about one-third of the maintenance and modernisation work a carrier receives during its service life.

Truman is the eighth Nimitz-class carrier to undergo this type of overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding.

Bryan Caccavale, the shipyard’s vice president of programme management, said the company had already ordered materials with long delivery times and carried out thousands of inspections and other work before the carrier arrived.

Truman arrived at the shipyard after a 251-day deployment.

During that deployment, the carrier fired more than 1.1 million pounds of ordnance. The deployment also included what the supplied material describes as the largest carrier-launched airstrike in history.

The deployment was also marked by several incidents that led to investigations.

In February 2025, Truman collided with the merchant vessel Besiktas-M near Port Said, Egypt.

The carrier’s commanding officer, Capt. Dave Snowden, was later relieved after the Navy lost confidence in his ability to command.

Truman also lost three F/A-18 Super Hornets during the deployment.

One aircraft was shot down by the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg in a friendly-fire incident. Another went overboard after a failed arrested landing.

The third fell into the Red Sea after slipping from the hangar deck while the carrier was making evasive manoeuvres in response to an incoming ballistic missile.

HII Gets Separate Navy Contract

HII has also received a separate Navy contract worth about $400 million to build 10 unmanned surface vessels under the Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel programme.

Five Romulus vessels are currently being built in Louisiana at Breaux Brothers Enterprises and Halimar Shipyard. They are expected to be delivered to the Navy before the end of fiscal 2027.

The Navy plans to procure 30 medium unmanned surface vessels from HII, Galliano Marine Services and Saronic Technologies. The average procurement cost is $40 million per ship.

HII has delivered more than 750 Remus unmanned underwater vehicles to customers in more than 30 countries.

In 2025, the company worked to speed up the design, development and construction of its Romulus unmanned surface vehicles. The vessels use HII’s Odyssey Autonomous Control Solutions.

References: defensenews, virginiabusiness