US Navy awards $5.1 billion contract to refuel and modernize USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier.

Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding division received a $5.10 billion fixed-ceiling incentive contract from the U.S. Navy for the refueling and complex overhaul of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. The mid-life industrial program encompasses the replacement of expended nuclear fuel in the vessel's two reactors alongside extensive modernization of propulsion and combat systems. Execution operations are scheduled to run at Newport News, Virginia, through November 2031.

The base contract is valued at $5,099,973,132, with additional options raising the maximum potential value to $5,183,380,744. This comprehensive overhaul accounts for roughly one-third of all maintenance and modernization performed across the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier's service life.

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An RCOH is a once-in-a-carrier-life mid-life overhaul that refuels its nuclear reactors while simultaneously rebuilding and modernizing propulsion, combat, electrical, and other ship systems for the second half of its 50-year service life. (Picture source: US Navy)

On September 29, 2026, Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)'s Newport News Shipbuilding received a $5,099,973,132 fixed-ceiling incentive contract for the Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH) of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), with $83,407,612 in options, which raises the maximum to $5,183,380,744. The U.S. Navy obligated $547,826,087 in FY2026 Shipbuilding and Conversion, Navy funding, equal to 10.74% of the base award, leaving $4,552,147,045 to be obligated later. Completion is scheduled for November 2031 at Newport News, Virginia, with work covering refueling of the carrier's two reactors, propulsion plant and combat system modernization, and intervention in thousands of compartments and tanks and most ship systems.

A separate advanced-planning contract awarded in January 2024 had a potential $913 million value and covered engineering, design, material procurement and fabrication, pre-overhaul inspections, and resource forecasting, meaning preparation began more than two years before the execution award. The USS Harry S. Truman was laid down on November 29, 1993, christened on September 7, 1996, and commissioned on July 25, 1998, making it the eighth Nimitz-class carrier to reach this once-in-service-life overhaul. The USS Harry S. Truman enters its RCOH after hundreds of thousands of launch-and-recovery cycles in its 28 years of service. For instance, CVW-3 flew 869 sorties and more than 2,700 hours during Operation Southern Watch, followed in 2003 by more than 2,000 sorties and more than 700 tons of ordnance delivered during 29 combat days.

During its 2007-2008 deployment, the air wing accumulated more than 26,500 hours in 9,500 sorties, including 2,459 combat sorties, almost 14,000 combat hours, and 77,500 lb (35.2 metric tons) of ordnance launched during 228 troops-in-contact events. Later, the USS Harry S. Truman recorded its 100,000th arrested landing on November 7, 2010, and 100,000th launch on November 9, before adding more than 2,900 combat sorties during 2013-14 and another 1,820 during 2015-16. The latter deployment also saw CVW-7 release more than 1.3 million lb (590 metric tons) of ordnance against Islamic State targets, followed by 234 additional combat sorties from the eastern Mediterranean between June 3 and June 19, 2016. The carrier's maintenance progression quantifies the difference between previous repair periods and the 2026 RCOH.

A six-month Planned Incremental Availability (PIA) completed in 2002 costed $110 million, modified all four catapults, and added a ninth air conditioning plant; another PIA ended in February 2004, one week early and $4 million below budget, followed by a 10-month Drydocking Planned Incremental Availability (DPIA) in January 2006. A 15-month DPIA in March 2011 replaced the 89,000-lb main mast with a 112,000-lb mast, adding 10.4 metric tons to the carrier's displacement. The 2014-15 availability program included propulsion plant modernization, main engine and lube-oil-pump repairs, and major catapult inspections, while two 2016 awards totaled $75.8 million for nuclear-support, propulsion, and other maintenance work.

The new $5.100 billion base contract is therefore 46.4 times the nominal 2002 PIA cost and 67.3 times those two 2016 awards combined, a difference driven not only by inflation but by the shift from periodic repair to reactor refueling and ship-wide mid-life recapitalization. The core RCOH task is the replacement of the highly enriched uranium (HEU) nuclear fuel that has powered the USS Harry S. Truman since the late 1990s, something none of its PIAs or DPIAs performed. The Nimitz-class RCOH occurs once during a nominal 50-year service life and accounts for roughly 35% of the maintenance and modernization performed over that life. The Truman's two Westinghouse A4W pressurized water nuclear reactors must be shut down and cooled to prescribed temperature and pressure conditions before the expended cores could be removed, with personnel exposure monitored and contaminated reactor internals, coolant, and material handled separately from conventional machinery.

Fresh cores replace the expended fuel, while propulsion systems are inspected, repaired, and modernized before reassembly. Unlike replacing a worn pump or inspecting a catapult during a PIA, a RCOH creates a tightly sequenced nuclear work package in which shutdown, radiological controls, component access, refueling, reassembly, and plant testing constrain the surrounding industrial schedule, as Newport News is the only U.S. shipyard performing carrier RCOHs. The remainder of the ship adds another layer of complexity because the contract includes thousands of compartments and tanks and most systems aboard CVN 75. Aging or obsolete components can be repaired or replaced, analog electrical equipment can be converted to digital equipment where required, pressure boundaries can undergo hydrostatic leakage tests, and critical welds can be radiographically inspected.

Acceptance also requires the verification of sensor thresholds, automatic trips, equipment setpoints, and safety-valve relief pressures before those systems are returned to service. The industrial sequence consequently runs through deactivation, opening and disassembly, reactor refueling, structural and machinery repair, modernization, reassembly, component testing, integrated system testing, and propulsion plant restart. This testing burden explains why the physical installation is only one portion of an RCOH duration, and why completion is scheduled in years rather than the six to 15 months required for the Truman's earlier major availabilities. The aviation side of the overhaul begins on a ship that had already exceeded 100,000 launches and 100,000 arrested recoveries by November 2010.

All four steam catapults were modified during the 2001-02 PIA and received major inspection during the 2014-15 availability, while the Truman was also repeatedly used to integrate aircraft that were absent when CVN 75 entered service in 1998. The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye made its first carrier takeoff from the Truman in February 2011; July 2012 operations included an F/A-18D carrying X-47B UCAS-D software, the carrier's first operational EA-18G Growler landing, and an MV-22 landing, while two precision helicopter landing sites were added to separate helicopter and fixed-wing flight paths. In December 2012, the Truman became the first carrier to host X-47B unmanned aircraft test operations.

The 2026 contract confirms major combat system upgrades, but does not specify radar models, electronic warfare suites, datalinks, weapons control equipment, computing systems, or individual launch-and-recovery modifications. The funding profile is front-loaded only modestly: $547.826 million was obligated against a $5.100 billion base award, leaving 89.26% ($4.552 billion) for subsequent obligations, while the $83.408 million option package equals 1.64% of the base value. The initial Shipbuilding and Conversion, Navy appropriation does not expire at the end of FY2026, supporting expenditure across a program scheduled through November 2031.

The execution contract also follows the January 2024 advanced-planning award worth up to $913 million, which funded engineering, design, fabrication, material procurement, inspections, and workforce forecasting before physical RCOH execution. Newport News is the only U.S. shipyard performing Nimitz-class RCOHs, and the Truman follows seven previous carriers through the process, with USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) immediately preceding it. However, this concentrates the Truman's nuclear engineering, supplier, production, and waterfront requirements at the same yard already conducting other carrier and submarine programs.

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Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.