Members of the carrier maintenance community from around the globe flocked to the Founders Inn in Virginia Beach Mar. 31 through Apr. 2 ready to align strategies with Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) priorities, strengthen their partnerships with their fellow teammates, and address key issues in carrier maintenance. This annual event, led by Carrier Team One (CT1), brings teammates together from across the naval enterprise with set goals in mind – share updates with the program, discuss ongoing initiatives, and facilitate collaboration. Together, the team worked to align for fiscal year 2026 operational readiness and beyond.
This three-day event was broken down into three main themes to explore each day: maintaining fleet readiness and operation capacity, modernizing carrier maintenance for future readiness, and sustaining long-term carrier fleet readiness. Each morning brought speakers from the enterprise to share their insight on the current status of carrier maintenance and the drive for the future for the platforms, then the attendees launched into breakout sessions each afternoon to explore various topics to include the maintenance continuum in practice, ship’s force knowledge management, improving risk management across the carrier maintenance lifecycle, emerging technologies and innovative efforts in the space, and more. In addition, the attendees could explore the knowledge sharing networks (KSN) established through CT1, providing focal areas in improving and shaping the future of carrier maintenance. Lastly, the event gave a chance to recognize the outstanding performers for their contributions to excellence in carrier maintenance, presenting them awards for their tremendous efforts.
“The carrier community is my community – and members of this community are at the forefront of liberty in service to our nation. We partner with one another, share with one another, learn from one another, and work hard to do the very best in servicing our fleet,” said Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) Commander, Rear Adm. Kavon Hakimzadeh, who provided a deck plate to fleet perspective on carrier maintenance. “CT1 has some very clear milestones and the reasons this community succeeds is because 30 years ago a group of people built this foundation and set the standards for carrier availabilities. We need to keep adhering to those standards. As our models shift and timelines become more important than ever to uphold, we have to go after meeting those goals for our projects. How do we get there? At NNSY, we’re making changes to the way we do business. I have a Navy Captain in charge of our submarine program as well as our carrier program to keep focus on our waterfront and the projects. We also are driving towards finding what best drives our mechanics and removing barriers for them so they can get the work done.”
He continued, “We need to have a questioning attitude about everything. We’ve got to learn what works and what we learn needs to be implemented to drive production. We can’t be afraid to shake up the way we do business. Something I found at NNSY is that we’re really good at off-yard work – or short-cycle work – that requires our team to co-locate and fix a set problem with a short time to get it done. But when it comes to our long-cycle work, we struggle. It’s hard to do long-cycle work without being able to shake up the way you do business, innovating how you approach the job. Let’s not be complacent in the daily grind – let’s drive the pace of our people and break down the barriers that stand in their way. Let them hit the ground running and become the problem-solvers I know they can be. As an enterprise, we need to be cautious to not be enamored with activity and continually focused on outcomes – we’ve had a lot of activity going on at our shipyard but for a long time, there wasn’t actually a lot getting done with that activity. We’re getting better but we aren’t there yet. We have to instill in our people the importance of what they do, ensure they learn the job and strive to be better at it every day, and become problem-solvers. We develop working streams – turning long-cycle work into more short-cycle work - so we can focus in on what needs to get done, what’s the highest priorities are in the workload, and get it done. This is our opportunity to realign and grow. Let’s make our organization look like what we envision it should look like.”
This event also signaled the official passing of the torch for CT1 Directors as former Director Kelly Souders turned over her duties to incoming Director Neil Hopkins, Souders joining NNSY as the Acting Chief Transformation Officer (Code 100TO).
“In CT1, I’ve learned how we are able to connect and what knowledge sharing truly is. I learned that it’s not just aboutprocess – it’s about people, execution, and impact. People are the solution and actively drive readiness,” said Souders. “When I stepped into this role, I had big shoes to fill. CT1 was built on the incredibly strong shoulders of our community and early on, I learned that this role was not about starting over; it was about building on the foundation and the culture. After the last six years, what I see is this – that this community continues to grow. We strengthened our processes, expanded the tools, and improved how we share knowledge across the enterprise. But most importantly we become more connected, more aligned, and more intentional. I ask that you stay grounded in the mission, protect and strengthen the culture of our community, and ensure that knowledge isn’t just captured but used.”
Hopkins took a moment to share his vision for the future of CT1 and honoring its legacy of 30 years. “I started my career in hot steel as a pipefitter and grew to who I am today. And as I joined our CT1 community – I thought on what it is we do and how we can improve together as one. We all come from different areas in the enterprise, bringing our learned experiences to the forefront so we can grow as a team. As Director, I understand the challenges we face and I’m deeply committed to ensure your expertise, knowledge, and lessons learned are shared so we can perform best practices as we forge together to be the best in carrier maintenance,” he said. “We need to honor where we came from so we don't lose sight of where we were and where we're going. We build on our already strong foundation, enforcing our standards of excellence as a team. As I enter this role, I want you to know I’m focused on learning as much and as fast as I can to meet the expectations of this great community. My hope is that together we will be to celebrate our achievements, embody that pride and work to make things better, honoring the strength we have and inspiring each other in what we do. We must innovate and optimize, lean into our community to build our processes and community on trust. Let our teams feel empowered and protected – and give them what they need as quickly as possible. This community is full of amazing people – and I’m excited and honored to work with each of you as we continue to strive in process improvement together.”