Newport News Shipbuilding is making significant progress in the compartment and systems construction of John F. Kennedy (CVN 79).

Shipbuilders recently eclipsed the 20% mark on compartment completion, turning over to the ship’s crew more than 500 of the total 2,615 spaces. They also have installed more than 8 million feet of cable – or more than 1,500 miles – of the approximately 10.5 million feet of cable on Kennedy.

The most recently completed spaces include berthing, machinery and electrical. This allows sailors assigned to the pre-commissioning unit to continue training on the ship while final outfitting and testing progresses.

“We are pleased with the progress being made on Kennedy,” said Lucas Hicks, vice president of USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) and John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) Aircraft Carrier Programs. “We are in the very early stages of systems testing, and look forward to successfully executing our work on equipment, systems and compartments that brings us closer to delivering the ship to the fleet.”

Kennedy, which is more than 80% complete overall, is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in 2024.