In this modern age, Newport News shipbuilders have access to technology designed to make their jobs smoother, safer and more efficient. There is one tool, though, that no technology or shortcut will ever replace: earned experience.

USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) is undergoing its refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) at Outfitting Berth 1 (OB1), where a team of X11 and X18 shipbuilders completed the ship’s sponson modification with first-time quality and no injuries.

Shipbuilders must replace the sponson, a massive void which serves as a backing structure that supports the weight of the island, during each carrier’s RCOH availability.

More impressively, the team completed the project while trimming over 1,000 hours from the duration of the sponson modification on USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) – a progressive result born of earned experience.

Jeffery Hudson (K45), an X18 general foreman, said passing forward lessons learned from previous RCOH availabilities enabled his team to accomplish this feat.

“I was a welder on the sponson modification for CVN 71 and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), and it wasn’t too efficient,” Hudson said. “I became a foreman at the end of CVN 72’s RCOH, and that’s when my lessons learned started to come into play.”

Hudson said that the hours needed for a sponson modification continued to drop between RCOHs for CVN 71 and USS George Washington (CVN 73).

He added, “For CVN 74, we took advantage of being able to rearrange the sequence of the build. That’s where our biggest improvements came from.”

One such improvement to their approach on CVN 74 was the team’s use of JLG lifts rather than traditional staging – an alternative that saved the project both man-hours and cost.

“We were able to do some amazing stuff by changing many, many smaller processes” Hudson said. “The team smoked it.”