The U.S. Navy has awarded Newport News Shipbuilding a $5.1 billion contract to carry out the Refuelling and Complex Overhaul of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), with the ship due to return to the fleet in November 2031, according to the service.
The contract with the HII division uses a Fixed Ceiling Incentive structure, which the U.S. Navy says shares risk between the service and the shipbuilder while rewarding improved performance against required delivery dates. It is the first carrier RCOH contract awarded since the establishment of Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) Maritime.
Rear Admiral Casey Moton, Acting PAE Maritime, said in the release: “This award is the latest example of how we are leveraging innovative contracting approaches to drive improved outcomes.” He added: “Our program management and contracting teams have worked side by side to arrive at a contract that incentivises schedule performance, addresses key lessons learned, shares risk appropriately so that we can re-deliver Truman to the Fleet on budget and on schedule.”
An RCOH involves refuelling the carrier’s two nuclear reactors alongside the modernisation, upgrade and repair of the ship’s systems. The U.S. Navy describes the work as a full recapitalisation intended to keep the ship relevant through the second half of a service life of more than 50 years, and says the availability accounts for nearly a third of the maintenance and modernisation the carrier will receive over its lifetime.
Truman will be the eighth Nimitz-class carrier to go through the process at Newport News, following Nimitz, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Carl Vinson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and John C. Stennis. Recent overhauls have run beyond their planned durations. George Washington spent close to six years in its RCOH before returning to the fleet in 2023, and the John C. Stennis availability, which began in 2021, has also experienced significant schedule delays.
The carrier’s overhaul was itself once in doubt. In its fiscal 2020 budget request, the U.S. Navy proposed skipping Truman’s RCOH and retiring the ship early to free up funding for other priorities, a plan that was reversed weeks later following opposition in Congress.
Commissioned in 1998, Truman has deployed repeatedly to the Mediterranean and Middle East. Its most recent deployment, which ended in June 2025, saw the carrier strike group conduct strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. During that cruise, the ship was involved in a collision with the merchant vessel Besiktas-M near Port Said, Egypt, in February 2025, after which its commanding officer was relieved. The carrier also lost three F/A-18 Super Hornets during the deployment, including one shot down in a friendly fire incident involving the cruiser USS Gettysburg.
According to the U.S. Navy, Truman will rejoin the fleet as the most technologically advanced carrier of the Nimitz class when the overhaul is completed.
