HII announced this week that its Newport News Shipbuilding division recently began topside testing of the electromagnetic aircraft launch system catapult on the future Ford-class supercarrier USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79), something which was supposed to have started last year. JFK was awarded in 2009 (!) laid down in 2015, christened in 2019, and is scheduled to be delivered in 2025. Anyway, it is always fun to see test sleds weighing up to 80,000 pounds go from zero to 150 knots in 300 feet and careen Wile E. Coyote-style into the James River.

• by John Currin
• 25 February 2024