CVN-80 will be the ninth American warship to bear the name Enterprise. "Enterprise" means "readiness to engage in daring or difficult action."

1. A sloop used during the Revolutionary War
2. A Continental Navy schooner
3. A schooner (1799–1823)
4. A schooner (1831–1844)
5. A screw sloop-of-war
6. A non-commissioned motorboat
7. An aircraft carrier, the most decorated warship of World War II (photo NS020628)
8. The world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier (photo NS026509)

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus pays tribute to the past and current crews of USS Enterprise (CVAN/CVN-65), and announces that CVN-80 will be named Enterprise, 1 December 2012.

U.S. Navy video.

A graphic showing what the future USS Enterprise (CVN-80) is expected to look like when she joins the fleet after 2025. The aircraft are F-35C Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters, F/A-18 E and F Super Hornet strike fighters, E-2D Hawkeye electronic warfare planes, and an unmanned strike jet modeled on the X-47B sitting on the No. 4 catapult. U.S. Navy graphic.

"The Aircraft Carrier Industrial Base Coalition has asked lawmakers for 'design for affordability' research and development dollars to reduce the cost of building carriers and for advance procurement funding for a block buy of CVN-80 and 81 materials."

Read the full story here (18 March 2016).

The future USS Enterprise (CVN-80).

Courtesy of Newport News Shipbuilding.

U.S. Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles, left, and Katie Ledecky, ship's sponsors of the future aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-80), and Jennifer Boykin, president of Newport News Shipbuilding, sign a 35-ton steel plate at Newport News Shipbuilding, 24 August 2017, to start advance construction of Enterprise, the ninth U.S. Navy ship to bear the name. Enterprise will be the third Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier. U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Huntington Ingalls Industries by Matt Hildreth (# 170824-N-N0101-110).

Ship's Sponsors, Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky, give orders to, "Cut that Steel!"

Courtesy of Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News Shipbuilding. Photo by Ashley Major, Staff Photographer (# DCS17-546-288).

A 35-ton steel plate is displayed at Newport News Shipbuilding division during a ceremony to start advance construction of the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN-80), 24 August 2017. The steel plate will become part of the foundation of Enterprise, the ninth U.S. Navy ship to bear the name. U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Huntington Ingalls Industries by Matt Hildreth (# 170824-N-N0101-111).

Image courtesy of Newport News Shipbuilding, a Division of Huntington Ingalls Industries.

Enterprise (CVN-80) rendering.

Image courtesy of Newport News Shipbuilding, a Division of Huntington Ingalls Industries.

Enterprise (CVN-80) First Cut of Steel, 24 August 2017. Promotional items.

Image courtesy of Newport News Shipbuilding, a Division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, by Ashley Major, Staff Photographer (# DCS17-546-64).

A shipbuilder grinds on a unit of the future USS Enterprise (CVN-80) on Platen 21, 27 June 2019.

Courtesy of Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News Shipbuilding. Photo by Ashley Cowan (# DCS19-375-26).

Shipyard worker measures and marks a steel plate that will become part of aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN-80), 2 June 2020.

Courtesy of Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News Shipbuilding. Photo by Matt Hildreth.

"Ceremonial keel laying of the Enterprise (CVN-80), 27 August 2022. One is of the keel plate, the second shows it being lowered to be joined to the assembly already in the building dock. Steel from CVN-65 has been used in those assemblies."

With the words, "I hereby declare the keel of the United States Ship Enterprise truly and fairly laid," Olympians Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky chalked their initials on respective steel plates, which were then embossed by skilled welders Ephony King and Jonathan Rishor and affixed to the keel of the future USS Enterprise (CVN-80), Saturday, 27 August 2022, at the HII-Newport News Shipyard (NNS), in Newport News, Va.

Then, NNS Lead Rigger, Mike "Chile" Williams, passed a radio to Ledecky, who gave the command for NNS Crane Operator Charlie Holloway to lower the 688-ton keel unit into the dry-dock. This section of the ship will support the forward half of Enterprise, when the aircraft carrier is fully assembled. The ceremonial plates will be affixed permanently to the ship's keel.

US Navy (USN) photo, author unknown, VIRIN 220827-N-N2201-003.

"The future in drawings..."

"USS Enterprise, The legend will live on..."

"USS Enterprise, Protecting America in the 21st Century and Beyond"