page_title: USS George H.W. Bush
section_title: 2012
hierarchical_section_title: USS George H.W. Bush / History / 2012
caption_attribution_description: English: A U.S. Navy X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator aircraft, center left, sits on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) in the Atlantic Ocean May 14, 2013, before a scheduled launch. The George H.W. Bush was the first aircraft carrier to successfully catapult-launch an unmanned aircraft from its flight deck.
context_page_description: USS George H.W. Bush is the tenth and final Nimitz-class supercarrier of the United States Navy. She is named for the 41st President of the United States and former Director of Central Intelligence George H. W. Bush, who was a naval aviator during World War II. The vessel's callsign is Avenger, after the TBM Avenger aircraft flown by then-Lieutenant George H.W. Bush in World War II. Construction began in 2003 at the Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard's Dry Dock 12, the largest in the western hemisphere. She was completed in 2009 at a cost of $6.2 billion and her home port is Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.
context_section_description: On 25 July 2012, George H.W. Bush began her four-month overhaul at Norfolk Naval Shipyard at Portsmouth, Virginia, included scheduled short-term technical upgrades.  On 1 December 2012, George H.W. Bush completed her PIA maintenance cycle and began sea trials on 3 December 2012. After completing sea trials on 4 December 2012, the carrier started her training and qualification cycle in preparation for the group's 2013 deployment.
caption: George H.W. Bush undertakes carrier qualifications in the Atlantic in May 2013; an F/A-18F Super Hornet is on the catapult; another F/A-18F and an X-47B are parked forward of the island superstructure; two more F/A-18Fs and four C-2 Greyhounds are parked aft.
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