Scott Stabler

An aircraft carrier is quite amazing. It’s more like a city than a ship. A Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, for example, rises 20 stories above the waterline, has a four-and-one-half-acre flight deck and is home to about 6,000 U.S. Navy personnel. It can carry enough food and supplies for three months and has distillation plants that convert 400,000 gallons of fresh water from sea water daily. Aircraft carriers have daily newspapers and radio and television stations.

The George H. W. Bush is being built at the Newport News Shipyard in Virginia.

Aircraft carriers have always fascinated Scott Stabler, (BSME ’82). “It’s their sheer size, the complexity of the systems and construction techniques and the magnitude of just about any measurement you want to use to describe the scope of the effort,” he said. “This engineering and construction project produces a self-sustaining city at sea, complete with its own power plant and airport. It amazes me.”

Stabler is the project manager for the construction of the tenth and last Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the George H. W. Bush, for the U.S. Navy. Since 1984 he has worked at the Northrop Grumman Corporation Newport News shipyard; his first position was in aircraft carrier engineering. After earning his master’s in business administration from the College of William and Mary in 1986 by attending evening classes, Stabler moved into the business management end of the shipyard for a few years. He is now in program management, which uses both his engineering knowledge and his business management skills. Since 1999 he has been a vice president. His work has focused on the new aircraft carrier since January 2001, when the contract was awarded to Northrop Grumman.

Three Northrop Grumman Newport News vice presidents greet former President George H. W. Bush and Bush’s daughter Doro Bush Koch, who is the sponsor of the George H. W. Bush Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. From the left to right are Scott Stabler (BSME ’82), project manager for the ship construction; Doro Bush Koch; George H.W. Bush; Bob Gunter, senior vice president of the Aircraft Carrier Program; and John Shephard, senior vice president of Operations.

His job as sector vice-president, CVN77, combines business management, customer relations and leadership. “My job includes setting the expectations for the team, identifying and dealing with areas of risk and keeping the right sense of urgency across the company,” he said. The cross-functional team Stabler directs includes representatives from all areas of the company, for example engineering, planning, contracts, manufacturing, sourcing and ship assembly.

Directing such a complex process can be a challenge, but Stabler enjoys solving problems with his team. “My favorite part of my job is being able to head off a problem or finding our way out of a jam by working together as a team,” he said. “It’s a marathon run. We have a tough budget and schedule to meet, but we have the planning and shipbuilding expertise required to pull it off.”

Indeed, the process of building an aircraft carrier takes several years. The George H. W. Bush will be delivered to the Navy in 2008. According to Stabler, “Between now and then we will be erecting the ship in our drydock and completing underwater work in preparation for a 2006 launch and christening ceremony. Once the ship is waterborne, complete outfitting and testing of all ship systems takes place.” The Navy will take ownership of the onboard spaces and systems gradually over the following two-year period leading up to delivery.

Stabler is also helping to redefine how the company operates. The George H. W. Bush is the lead program for implementation of a new operating system at Northrop Grumman Newport News. This includes both new enterprise software (SAP) and a new set of operating principles. This project is important not only for the Nimitz-class carrier currently in construction but also for the success of future programs, such as the next aircraft carrier class Northrop Grumman will design and build with the Navy.

According to Stabler, combining his engineering background with leadership is highly rewarding. “When you can see recurring movement in the right direction for key parts of the program,” he said, “it’s really very exciting to think that your efforts made a difference.”

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(Photos: courtesy of Northrop Grumman Newport News)

Media Contact: Linda E. Rudd, 919/515-3848, linda_rudd@ncsu.edu