PORTSMOUTH, Va. — USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) arrived at Norfolk Naval Shipyard Thursday for a Drydocking Planned Incremental Availability (DPIA).
The DPIA will last 28-months, and this is the first time USS Bush been out of the water since 2006.
Drydocking and maintaining a 103,000 ton, 1,092-foot long aircraft carrier is complex work.
Norfolk Naval Shipyard officials said the shipyard will need about 1.3 million man-days to complete the task.
On USS Bush, project team members will use advanced technology such as exoskeleton suits, additive manufacturing, and laser scanners to create virtual rigging paths, and the development of training models using virtual reality.
“There are a lot of first time jobs all around given this is the first time Bush has sat on keel blocks since being built,” said Bush Project Superintendent Jeff Burchett. “With the size of this work package, it will take a total team effort by Norfolk Naval Shipyard.”
As the first carrier docking at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in several years, Bush will be on blocks for a majority of its time. Naval Facilities Engineering Command helped get the dry dock ready with recent dock flooding and saltwater system upgrades to accommodate the ship.
“Our project team is poised and ready to take on this mission,” Burchett said. “There’s a quote from George H.W. Bush himself that we have taken on as the project team motto: ‘This is my mission and I will complete it.’”