Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding

Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding (NGS), formerly called Northrop Grumman Newport News (NGNN) or Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company (NNS&DD or simply NNS), was the largest privately owned shipyard in the United States prior to being purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2001. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding is one of two shipyards that produce and service all types of nuclear powered submarines (the other is the Electric Boat Corporation), and at present is the only shipyard that can build "Nimitz"-class supercarriers. NGS is also home to the largest crane in the western hemisphere. NGS is located in Newport News, Virginia, and often participates in projects with the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, also located adjacent to Hampton Roads.

History

Industrialist Collis P. Huntington (1821 – 1900) led the efforts to complete the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (C&O) from Richmond, Virginia to the Ohio River in the early 1870s. Although originally built for general commerce, the C&O soon was also used to transport bituminous coal from the previously isolated coalfields adjacent to the New River and the Kanawha River in West Virginia. In the 1880s, an extension of the C&O was built from Richmond down the Virginia Peninsula to reach a new coal pier on Hampton Roads in Warwick County near the small unincorporated community of Newport News. However, building the railroad and coal pier was only the first part of Huntington's dreams for Newport News.

In 1886, he built a shipyard to repair ships servicing this transportation hub. In 1891, Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company delivered its first ship, a tugboat named "Dorothy". By 1897, NNS had built three warships for the U.S. Navy: "Nashville", "Wilmington", and "Helena".

In 1906, the revolutionary HMS "Dreadnought" launched a great naval race worldwide. Between 1907 and 1923, Newport News built six of the U.S. Navy's total of 22 dreadnoughts -- "Delaware", "Texas", "Pennsylvania", "Mississippi", "Maryland", and "West Virginia" -- and all but the first would still be in active service in World War II.

In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt sent the Great White Fleet on its round-the-world voyage. Seven of its 16 battleships were built by NNS. In 1914, NNS built the SS "Medina" for the Mallory Steamship Company; as the MV "Doulos" she is now the world's oldest active ocean-faring passenger ship.

Between 1918 and 1920, NNS delivered 25 destroyers, and after World War I, NNS began building aircraft carriers. "Ranger" was delivered in 1934, and NNS went on to build "Yorktown" and "Enterprise".

By 1940, the Navy had ordered seven more aircraft carriers and four cruisers. During World War II, it built ships as part of the U.S. Government's Emergency Shipbuilding Program, and swiftly filled requests for "Liberty ships" that were needed during the war. It founded North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, an emergency yard on the banks of the Cape Fear River and launched its first Liberty ship before the end of 1941, building 243 ships in all, including 186 Libertys. For its contributions during the war, the Navy awarded the company its "E" pennant for excellence in ship construction.

In the post-war years, NNS built the famous passenger liner SS "United States", which set a transatlantic speed record that still stands today. In 1954, NNS, together with Westinghouse and the Navy, developed and built a prototype nuclear reactor for a carrier propulsion system. NNS designed the "Enterprise" in 1960. In 1959 NNS launched its first nuclear-powered submarine, "Shark" as well as the ballistic missile submarine "Robert E. Lee".

In the 1970s, NNS launched two of the largest tankers ever built in the western hemisphere and also constructed three liquefied natural gas carriers -- at over 390,000 deadweight tons, the largest ever built in the United States. In the 1980s, NNS produced a variety of Navy products, including "Nimitz"-class nuclear aircraft carriers and "Los Angeles"-class nuclear attack submarines. The original ship in its class, the USS Nimitz was already well under construction by the early '70's, being built in a drydock at 42nd Street in Downtown Newport News, in full view of most of the downtown area.

Merger with Northrop Grumman

The combination created a $4 billion shipyard called Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding. The shipyard is a major employer not only for the lower Virginia Peninsula, but portions of Hampton Roads south of the James River and the harbor, portions of the Middle Peninsula region, and even some northeastern counties of North Carolina.

On 28 January 2008, Northrop Grumman Corporation realigned its two shipbuilding sectors, Northrop Grumman Newport News and Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, into a single sector called Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding. [http://www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=134293]

Ships built

Ships built at the Newport News yard include:

* Tugboat "Dorothy", the shipyard's first vessel delivered, in 1891
* SS Georgia a crude oil tanker built in 1908
* USS "Virginia", lead battleship of its class, liy|1904
* USS "Texas", battleship of the "New York"-class, liy|1912, the only surviving dreadnought battleship.
* Ocean liner SS "Medina" for the Mallory Steamship Company in 1914, currently the oldest serving passenger ship in the world
* "Wickes" class destroyers ("Lamberton"; "Radford"; "Montgomery"; "Breese"; "Gamble"; "Ramsay") for the Navy in 1918
* USS "Ranger", the first purpose-built aircraft carrier of the United States Navy, liy|1933
* "Yorktown" class aircraft carriers:
** USS "Yorktown", liy|1936
** USS "Enterprise", liy|1936
** USS "Hornet", liy|1940
* "Essex" class aircraft carriers:
** USS "Essex", liy|1942
** USS "Yorktown", liy|1943
** USS "Intrepid", liy|1943
** USS "Hornet", liy|1943
** USS "Franklin", liy|1943
** USS "Ticonderoga", liy|1944
** USS "Randolph", liy|1944
** USS "Bennington", liy|1944
** USS "Boxer", liy|1944
** USS "Leyte", liy|1945
* Liberty ship transports for the Allies during World War II
* "Midway" class aircraft carriers:
** USS "Midway", liy|1945
** USS "Coral Sea", liy|1946
* Ocean liner SS "United States", holder of a transatlantic speed record
* "Forrestal" class aircraft carriers:
** USS "Forrestal", liy|1954
** USS "Ranger", liy|1956
* Submarine USS "Shark" in 1959, the yard's first nuclear-powered submarine
* Ballistic missile submarine "Robert E. Lee", liy|1959
* USS "Enterprise", liy|1960, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
* USS "America", liy|1964
* USS "John F. Kennedy", liy|1967
* All ten "Nimitz" class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers:
** USS "Nimitz", liy|1972
** USS "Dwight D. Eisenhower", liy|1975
** USS "Carl Vinson", liy|1980
** USS "Theodore Roosevelt", liy|1984
** USS "Abraham Lincoln", liy|1988
** USS "George Washington", liy|1990
** USS "John C. Stennis", liy|1993
** USS "Harry S. Truman", liy|1996
** USS "Ronald Reagan", liy|2001
** USS "George H. W. Bush"
* "Los Angeles" class nuclear-powered submarines
* "Virginia" class nuclear-powered submarines
* "Virginia" class nuclear-powered cruisers
** USS "Arkansas", liy|1980
*** T.S. Empire State VI, Training ship to the New York Maritime College at Fort Schuyler, Bronx, New York.

Creed

::"We shall build good ships here. At a profit - if we can. At a loss - if we must. But always good ships". ::: Collis Potter Huntington

External links

* [http://www.nn.northropgrumman.com/default.htm Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding]