Key Points: The USS George Washington (CVN-73), a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, endured a record-breaking overhaul lasting over 2,100 days, influenced by budget cuts, challenging ship conditions, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

-This $2.8 billion refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) upgraded the carrier’s propulsion, infrastructure, and combat systems, preparing it to replace USS Ronald Reagan in the U.S. 7th Fleet.

-However, the prolonged repair period took a heavy toll, with ten sailors tragically committing suicide, potentially due to the difficult living conditions and lack of meaningful work during the overhaul.

USS George Washington's Overhaul: A 2,100-Day Saga of Repair and Renewal

All of the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carriers require mid-life refueling and overhauls at around the 25-year service mark. While this process typically takes under a few years, USS George Washington (CVN-73) underwent a brutally long repair period that lasted more than 2,100 days.

According to the ship’s manufacturer Newport News Shipbuilding, budgetary constraints, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and labor issues all contributed to George Washington’s lengthy overhaul:

“Factors that extended the RCOH included delays and changes in her RCOH planning and induction timeline due to FY15 budgetary decisions to inactivate (vice refuel) this ship; the arrival condition of the ship, which was more challenging than expected, planned or budgeted for, including growth work in significant areas of the RCOH; the requirement to remove critical parts from CVN-73 to support higher-priority, deploying aircraft carriers; and the impact of COVID-19 on the workforce and industrial base.”

George Washington did not leave the dry dock for sea trials until summer 2023, nearly six years after beginning her overhaul process. As part of the $2.8 billion contract with Newport News Shipbuilding, George Washington received upgrades to her propulsion equipment, infrastructure, and combat systems. Once the Nimitz carrier was back out at sea, she replaced USS Ronald Reagan in the U.S. 7^th Fleet.

An overview of USS George Washington:

When USS George Washington (CVN-73) was first commissioned in the early 1990s, she became the fourth U.S. Navy ship named to honor George Washington and the first nuclear-powered carrier to bear the name. As the sixth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier produced, George Washington possesses the same capabilities and functions as her sister-ships.

Two Westinghouse A4W nuclear reactors, four steam turbines, four shafts, and four 5-bladed propellers power the hefty vessel, which all in all provide 260,000 horsepower.

Each of the Nimitz warships can carry 60 airframes, including a combination of rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft with up to 90 different types.

The incorporation of steam catapults onboard the Nimitz carriers allows even a 60,000 pound fully-loaded F/A-18 fighter to launch from the deck.

As explained by Popular Mechanics, “Steam is diverted from the ship’s boilers—steam boilers powered by the ship’s nuclear reactors—and piped up to just under the flight deck, where it is held and pressurized in special tanks. In the meantime, the front landing gear of a carrier aircraft is loaded onto a small, plate-sized shuttle. When the aircraft is ready for launch, the steam is suddenly released and, in a burst of power, accelerates the shuttle—and attached aircraft—down the flight deck to takeoff speeds.”

The addition of this catapult enables the carrier to circumvent the need for a longer runway- a critical capability for the Navy.

Over a nine-month long period between 2021-2022, ten sailors committed suicide onboard the carrier while docked for the extensive overhaul. These tragedies were perhaps influenced by the “construction site-like” living conditions on the ship and the fact that many crew members were relegated to maintenance and cleaning duties during the overhaul instead of the more meaningful shipboard duties for which they were initially trained.

About the Author: Maya Carlin

Maya Carlin, National Security Writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin. 

Image Credit: Creative Commons.