In order to complete these massive productions from start to finish, the facilities at Newport News Shipyard include eight dry docks, four piers intended for outfitting activities, a massive 11-acre steel fabrication plant, a foundry and a company-run school for apprentices to the shipbuilding field of work. Over the last two decades, the Newport News Shipyard "under the management of the Northrop Grumman Corporation" has designed and built every aircraft carrier currently used by the United States Navy. This unique accomplishment was made possible with the help of the over 4,000 engineers "both nuclear and non-nuclear in specialization" that are employed by the company and its subsidiary.

In fact, since 1905, when the Newport News Shipyard made its last contribution to the storied Great White Fleet, the shipyard in Newport News, Virginia has been the site for the production of over 600 naval vessels. Today, the facilities are able to maintain an laudable degree of efficiency by supervising their own, self-contained apprentice education center, where the future shipbuilders and contributors to the United States Navy's fleet of ships are given the finest shipbuilding education available. On average, 800 shipbuilding apprentices are educated at the center at any given time, and over the course of the last nearly 90 years, over 9,000 apprentices have graduated and subsequently lent support to the success of the Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipyard. Some of the specializations offered at the apprentice school at Newport News Shipyard are in the fields of machining, milling, electrical work, rigging welding, and other fields traditionally associated with the requirements of shipbuilding.

To stay on top of the industry competition, the company operating the Newport News Shipyard is also dedicated to cutting-edge research in the field of shipbuilding and outfitting. Many of the U.S. Navy ships built at the Newport News Shipyard are outfitted with state-of-the-art technological systems available to no other naval fleet in the world. Thus, in addition to operating the facilities at the Newport News Shipyard, the company Northrop Grumman is also the leader of the research team at the Herbert M. Bateman Virginia Advanced Shipbuilding and Carrier Integration Center. At this 250,000 square-foot research facility, researchers and engineers experiment with a number of technologies designed by scientists, universities and researchers from the United States military. Over three thousand engineers are employed at the complex that houses the Herbert M. Bateman Virginia Advanced Shipbuilding and Carrier Integration Center.

Recently, news released to the media has shed happy light on the productive work undertaken at the Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipyard. In 2008, the Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a contract for the refueling and complete overhaul and outfitting of a large nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which, according to the company, was built at the Newport News Shipyard in 1984. According to plans made public by Northrop Grumman, the USS Theodore Roosevelt will arrive at the Newport News Shipyard in 2009, at which point it will be completely overhauled and refueled at the facility in Newport News, Virginia. As a nuclear-power vessel, the USS Theodore Roosevelt is expected to require only this one refueling procedure during its service-span of nearly 50 years. The Navy contact is worth many millions of dollars to Northrop Grumman.

Today, the Northrop Grumman of the Newport News Shipyard is the only company in the United States that designs, builds, and refuels nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. This fact, along with the large-scale, intensive research and educational efforts undertaken by the company should assure the future success of Northrop Grumman and the Newport News Shipyard. Of course, this success and aura of cheerful news have not always hung so lightly as they do today at the facilities in Newport News, Virginia. Over the course of the past century "and especially during the World War II years" the facilities were heavily implicated in the asbestos scandals that followed the war era boom in shipbuilding industry. Following World War II, nearly 100,000 shipbuilding workers who served at shipyards during the war died from illnesses caused by asbestos exposure. If you are a shipyard worker, and you suspect that you have been exposed to asbestos and may be at risk for developing a serious illness, please contact an experienced mesothelioma lawyer today!

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