Screen Shot of the Technological Advances installed aboard CVN-78

In a forum a retired USN Captain (verified) made this comment on the apparent condition of the Hull of CVN-78:

Most of the corrosion that hull will ever see is right before your eyes. Once all of the welds and other annealing processes are complete, the hull will be "bead blasted 'white'," and then the coats of red lead primer and haze gray will be applied. Partly this is because of the great cost incurred in dealing with pollution laws these days. Repainting piecemeal over new welds repeatedly will affect the bottom line. So, they sort of do it in one fell swoop, and incur those costs only once.

..and that's that..