The Navy’s Ford-Class Aircraft Carrier Problem: Big Price and Years Behind

The United States Navy planned that the second supercarrier in the Gerald Ford-class, the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79), would officially be delivered to the US Navy this July. However, that date will most probably be missed due to a list of long-running and still-uncorrected “critical challenges.”

CVN 79 is also the second aircraft carrier to honor President John F. Kennedy for a lifetime of service to the nation. The first USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) aircraft carrier operated as a fleet carrier for over 50 years before its decommissioning in 2007. This first flattop, named after the 35th president, was the last conventional, non-nuclear-powered carrier built for the US Navy.

According to recent testimony before a hearing of the Senate Armed Services sea power panel, these show-stopping challenges include issues with the elevators used to move munitions from below deck and the electromagnetic aircraft launch (EMALS) and recovery systems.

Construction of the $12.9 billion Kennedy is reportedly 95 percent complete, and the carrier’s shipbuilder, HII, remains under contract to deliver the ship to the US Navy (USN) in July. However, the smart money is that the date could slip as much as one year. The carrier’s original delivery date had been for 2022, which was then pushed to the right to 2024.

Employing the traditional “happy talk” that is standard fare when speaking to congressional purse-string holders about major defense program schedule delays, the USN and HII are both “hyper-focused” on completing the ship.

The service and the shipyards are on a “delivery plan that results in the fastest path to a combat-ready” vessel, “crew, and air wing,” according to the testifying officials in the statement co-authored by Rear Admiral Casey Moton, who is the Program Executive Officer (PEO) for aircraft carrier projects.

Dual-Phase Shipbuilding for Ford-Class Aircraft Carriers 

The John F. Kennedy is the second of four carriers in the Ford-class. The first carrier was delivered in May 2017, roughly 32 months later than the originally programmed date. At the time, the ship had no functioning weapons elevators. Those systems and several other items were not completely installed and certified as meeting the ship’s design specifications until years later.

The Ford has since completed a deployment in January 2024., including being part of the initial US military’s response to the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, “with critical new systems performing well,” according to the statement.

The Kennedy was first christened at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding in December 2019, and the carrier was then slated for a 2022 delivery. At that time, the US Navy was still operating under what was called the “dual-phase delivery plan.”

Delivery involved a staggered construction schedule under which the Newport News yard would build the ship’s main body, then pause the final fitting-out work and install the additional systems needed to complete the carrier later.

This dual-phase delivery plan was devised to save the Navy money on construction schedules in the yard. The idea initially was to prevent any need to bring on additional workforce and incur other expenditures should there be an overlap between the Kennedy entering the fleet and the work on USS Nimitz (CVN-68) de-commissioning.

Other than not placing any extra burdens on the shipyard’s staffing, the Navy’s objective was to give HII additional time to install updated electronics onto the carrier. Under this scheduling model, the Kennedy would have received retroactive modifications for the F-35C after being“officially” delivered.

Shipbuilding Capacity 

Under the dual-phase approach, the Kennedy would have received retroactive modifications for the F-35C after delivery. This did not go down well with US lawmakers, who had mandated that Kennedy be able to field the F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter before finishing its Post-Shakedown Availability (PSA).

This highlights one of the tragedies of US naval aviation. The service is lagging in the ability to design and produce new fighters (the F/A-XX program being the current example), and the deterioration of shipbuilding capacity is even more alarming.

Shipbuilding capacity, or the lack thereof, is a growing problem for the US Navy. Commercial shipbuilding in the US is virtually nonexistent: US shipyards built just five oceangoing commercial ships in 2022, compared to 1,794 in China and South Korea’s 734. US Navy estimates that China’s shipbuilding capacity is 232 times US production. It costs roughly twice as much to build a ship in the US as it does elsewhere in the world.

As an article in USNI from a year ago outlines, “Today, China’s shipbuilding industry and the growing capacity of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) gives China an overwhelming strategic advantage against the United States in a potential sustained conflict.

“To withstand the bow wave, the US Navy must field complete and proven capabilities in an efficient, effective, and timely manner—which will require addressing shortcomings in ship design, production, maintenance, and repair, as well as challenges with the supply chain and human capital.”

A year later, the situation seems even worse than it was back then.

About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson 

Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design.  Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.