Milcom Monitoring Post Profiles

Tuesday, May 09, 2017

USS Abraham Lincoln Underway for Sea Trials

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Mark Logico
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (NNS) -- Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham 
Lincoln (CVN 72) got underway for sea trails, May 9, following a four-year 
refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) at Newport News Shipbuilding, 
Newport News, Virginia.

The four-day sea trails marks Abraham Lincoln's first time underway since 
March 2013. The ship spent its last days in the shipyard completing a five-day
"fast cruise," May 2-7, making final preparations for its transit to Naval Station 
Norfolk.

"We are looking forward to taking the ship out on the open water where we 
belong," said Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt, Lincoln's executive officer. "I am 
honored to serve with our crew. This dedicated and impressive group put an 
incredible amount of work into revitalizing this ship. We are grateful for their 
efforts and to our partners at Newport News Shipbuilding, and eagerly 
anticipate completing successful sea trials and returning to the fleet ready 
for tasking later this year."

During sea trials, the Abraham Lincoln crew will undergo multiple training 
scenarios and qualification evolutions to include engineering maneuvers 
designed to evaluate the performance of the ship after the extensive 
maintenance period.

"Our team has worked hard to get USS Abraham Lincoln ready to redeliver 
to the fleet," said Rear Adm. Brian Antonio, program executive officer for 
aircraft carriers. "She has undergone significant combat systems modernization 
and will also be the first CVN capable of accommodating the F-35C 
Lightning II. This RCOH enabled the ship to meet future missions and 
continued service life requirements for many years to come."

During RCOH, more than 2.5 million man-hours of work were conducted 
aboard the ship, including refueling the reactors, upgrading ship's infrastructure 
and modernizing combat systems and air wing capabilities to increase combat 
effectiveness.

Abraham Lincoln is the fifth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier to complete RCOH, 
a major lifecycle milestone at Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of 
Huntington Ingalls Industries in Newport News. She returns to the fleet as 
one of the most modern and technologically-advanced Nimitz-class aircraft 
carriers in service and will continue to be a vital part of the nation's defense 
for an additional 25 years.