The future aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy has left dry dock for the first time.

A little more than a week after Caroline Kennedy smashed a bottle across its hull, the future aircraft carrier named for her father was launched Monday.

Six tugboats guided the future John F. Kennedy about a mile down Virginia’s James River from Newport News Shipbuilding’s Dry Dock 12 to the installation’s Pier 3. There, it will be outfitted with berthing and mess spaces and systems and its catapults and radar will be tested, the yard’s parent company — Huntington Ingalls Industries — said Tuesday.

The next phase of construction is expected to take 2 ½ years.

“This move is significant in that it represents a shift in focus from erecting the ship in dock to final completion and outfitting at the pier,” Mike Butler, program director for the Kennedy, said in a statement. “It is also a testament to the amazing teamwork I see every day between Newport News Shipbuilding and the Navy as we work together to build Kennedy with valuable first-of-class lessons from the Ford.”

Newport News Shipbuilding is the sole manufacturer of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers.

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The second in the Gerald R. Ford-class of revolutionary flattops, the future Kennedy is three months ahead of schedule, according to the shipbuilder.

Ford, however, has been bedeviled by delays, cost overruns and technical glitches on its new systems.

In October, ex-Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer and Virginia Rep. Elaine Luria, a retired surface warfare officer, traded barbs over the likelihood of future Ford deployments.

The Kennedy will be the second carrier in the fleet named in honor of the 35th president.

Caroline Kennedy christened the first namesake warship in 1967 at Newport News and the Navy commissioned it the following year.

It was decommissioned in 2007.

Courtney Mabeus-Brown is the senior reporter at Air Force Times. She is an award-winning journalist who previously covered the military for Navy Times and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., where she first set foot on an aircraft carrier. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy and more.

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