Key Points and Summary – USS Enterprise (CVN-80), the third Gerald R. Ford-class carrier, has slipped to a 2030 delivery after successive delays.
-Causes include harder-than-expected integration of new tech from CVN-78 (EMALS, Advanced Arresting Gear, weapons elevators), pandemic-driven supply-chain shocks, and skilled-labor shortages. Some fixes emerged too late to fully incorporate on CVN-79/80/81.
(July 28, 2017) An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 approaches the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) for an arrested landing. The aircraft carrier is underway conducting test and evaluation operations.(U.S. Navy photo by Erik Hildebrandt/Released) 170728-N-UZ648-161
The world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), sails in the Atlantic Ocean, July 4, 2025. Gerald R. Ford, a first-in-class aircraft carrier and deployed flagship of Carrier Strike Group Twelve, incorporates modern technology, innovative shipbuilding designs, and best practices from legacy aircraft
carriers to increase the U.S. Navy’s capacity to underpin American security and economic prosperity, deter adversaries, and project power on a global scale through sustained operations at sea. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Tajh Payne)
-Carriers’ long lead items, nuclear propulsion, and tiny production runs limit economies of scale, compounding schedule risk.
-Huntington Ingalls/Newport News floated and shifted CVN-80’s hull to free space for concurrent builds, hoping to regain tempo.
-Whether lessons learned now translate into steadier schedules and costs across the class remains uncertain overall.
The Ford-Class Has a ‘Late’ Problem
One of the U.S. Navy’s upcoming Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers, the future USS Enterprise (CVN-80), has faced repeated delays.
Recent Navy budgetary documents outline how the production timetable slipped. The Enterprise was originally scheduled for delivery in the late 2020s, but CVN-80’s new projected delivery time has since been revised — first to 2028-2029, and now to 2030.
The carrier’s delay can be chalked up to several distinct but overlapping issues: the integration of new technologies that were more difficult to mate to a carrier than anticipated; supply chain issues partly exacerbated by the COIVD-19 pandemic, as well as issues sourcing the skilled labor necessary to build CVN-80; and the slow integration of design alterations intended to streamline the builds of subsequent Ford-class carriers.
The Gerald R. Ford-class Aircraft Carriers
The lead ship of the Gerald R. Ford-class, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), incorporated several major new carrier technologies.
Electromagnetic catapults to replace the Navy’s traditional steam catapults, advanced arresting gear for landings, and advanced weapons elevators all experienced integration issues.
The Ford-class also sports a redesigned island and flight deck.
“The Ford-class design uses the basic Nimitz-class hull form but incorporates several improvements,” a report from the Congressional Research Service explains. These improvements include “features permitting the ship to generate more aircraft sorties per day, more electrical power for supporting ship systems, and features permitting the ship to be operated by several hundred fewer sailors than a Nimitz-class ship, reducing estimated 50-year life-cycle operating and support costs for each ship by about $4 billion compared to the Nimitz-class design.”
While these new systems were intended to boost automation and increase sortie rates, while also lowering lifecycle costs, their technological immaturity necessitated engineering redesigns.
The plan is that these fixes will inform subsequent Ford-class builds.
The Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) and the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550) transit the Atlantic Ocean March 20, 2021, marking the first time a Ford-class and Italian carrier have operated together underway. As part of the Italian Navy’s Ready for Operations (RFO) campaign for its flagship, Cavour is conducting sea trials in coordination with the F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office’s Patuxent River Integrated Test Force to obtain official certification to safely operate the F-35B. Gerald R. Ford is conducting integrated carrier strike group operations during independent steaming event 17 as part of her post-delivery test and trials phase of operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Riley McDowell)
But many of the lessons learned were discovered too late or were too complex to apply to the rest of the carrier class in a timely manner.
The second ship in the class, the John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), was too far along in its construction when engineers identified issues with the Ford-class design. Huntington Ingalls Industries and Newport News had only a limited ability to retrofit the class.
The third and fourth ships of the Ford-class, the Enterprise and the USS Doris Miller (CVN-81), missed implementing some of the redesign.
The COVID-19 pandemic wrinkled supply lines, and not just for American shipbuilders.
However, the long lead times inherent in carrier builds particularly impacted HII and Newport News’ production schedules. Suppliers for large structural models and specialized new subsystems all faced delays, and a skilled worker shortfall exacerbated the issue.
Aircraft carriers are the largest ships afloat; they are complex platforms built in very small numbers.
Unlike other vessels that are built in higher numbers, and for which subsequent builds normally fall in price, aircraft carriers have long build gaps and unique requirements given their specialized abilities and their nuclear propulsion — the impact of economies of scale is more limited.
Into the Future
Late last year, Huntington Ingalls Industries moved the hull of CVN-80 for the first time.
The maneuver was part of an effort to make space for multiple concurrent aircraft carrier builds at the dockyard.
“The evolution began Thursday, Oct. 31 with the controlled process of slowly filling the dry dock with more than 100 million gallons of water, marking the first time CVN 80 has been floated,” HII explained. The carrier hull was “then transferred to the west end of the dry dock, where construction on the ship will continue.” The hope at HII is that the ability to build multiple Ford-class carriers concurrently will speed up the production timetable.
“It is only fitting for this Enterprise, CVN 80, to be part of a historic first at NNS, considering the previous Enterprise, CVN 65, was the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, proudly built here at the shipyard,” said an Newport News Shipbuilding official. “Thousands of dedicated shipbuilders are working with urgency on these aircraft carriers that we know will play a vital role in the Navy’s fleet.”
Postscript
It remains to be seen whether Huntington Ingalls Industries and Newport News Shipbuilding can smooth out the delays that have struck the ships.
Another question is whether the lessons learned while building the lead ship of the class will have any beneficial effect on the building of subsequent Ford-class carriers.
Given the long lead times and the complexity of carrier builds, reining in the production schedules and costs of the Gerald R. Ford-class may prove difficult indeed.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
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