Navy's Gerald R. Ford-Class Aircraft Carrier Program Faces Delays and Oversight Challenges

The Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier program, the cornerstone of the U.S. Navy’s future capabilities, is encountering significant delays, cost overruns, and critical oversight issues, according to a Congressional Research Service report updated January 14, 2025.

Program Highlights

The Navy has commissioned one Ford-class carrier, CVN-78 (USS Gerald R. Ford), since the program began. Despite its commissioning in 2017, the ship only achieved initial operational capability in 2021. Its first full-length deployment began in May 2023. Delays in construction and testing have also pushed the delivery dates of follow-on ships, including CVN-79 (John F. Kennedy) and CVN-80 (Enterprise), into 2025 and 2029, respectively.

Oversight Concerns

Key concerns for Congress include:

• Faulty Welds: Reports of defective welds on Ford-class carriers, first revealed in late 2024, have prompted investigations and urgent calls for corrective actions.
• Budget Reallocation: The Navy’s FY2025 budget proposes deferring the procurement of CVN-82 (William J. Clinton) by two years, citing financial constraints. This has raised alarms about potential impacts on the industrial base and long-term program costs.
• Testing Gaps: The program has faced criticism over inadequate operational and survivability testing, including cyber vulnerabilities and self-defense capabilities against advanced threats.

Industrial and Strategic Impacts

The delays have ripple effects on the shipbuilding industrial base, managed by Huntington Ingalls Industries/Newport News Shipbuilding, the only U.S. yard capable of constructing large-deck, nuclear-powered carriers. The setbacks also affect the Navy’s ability to maintain its statutory requirement of 11 operational carriers, a critical component of U.S. maritime dominance.

Congress is weighing options to address these challenges, including potential block-buy contracts for future carriers, expanded oversight, and adjustments to procurement schedules to sustain the industrial base while managing costs.

As the Navy aims for a 12-carrier fleet under its long-term plan, ensuring the timely and cost-effective delivery of Ford-class carriers remains a priority for maintaining global naval superiority.

Report to Congress on Ford-class Aircraft Carrier Program - USNI News

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U.S. Naval Institute Staff

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The following is the Jan. 14, 2025, Congressional Research Service report, Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress.

From the report

The aircraft carriers CVN-78, CVN-79, CVN-80, CVN-81, CVN-82, and CVN-83 are the first six ships in the Navy’s new Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers (CVNs). The Navy’s proposed FY2025 budget requests $2,143.9 million (i.e., about $2.1 billion) in procurement funding for Ford-class ships, including $236.0 million for CVN-79, $1,186.9 million for CVN-80, and $721.0 million for CVN-81. The Navy’s FY2025 budget submission proposes deferring the procurement of the fifth ship in the class, CVN-82, by two years, from FY2028 to FY2030, with advance procurement (AP) for the ship beginning in FY2027.

CVN-78 (Gerald R. Ford) was procured in FY2008. The ship was commissioned into service on July 22, 2017, and achieved initial operational capability in December 2021. The ship’s first deployment began in October 2022, more than five years after the ship was commissioned into service. CVN-79 (John F. Kennedy) was procured in FY2013. The Navy’s FY2025 budget submission states that the ship is scheduled for delivery in July 2025.

CVN-80 (Enterprise) was procured in FY2018. On April 2, 2024, the Navy announced delays in the scheduled deliveries of several of its shipbuilding programs, including CVN-80, whose delivery, the Navy stated, will be delayed approximately 18 to 26 months. The Navy’s FY2025 budget submission, which was submitted to Congress in March 2024, shows the ship’s scheduled delivery date as September 2029, or 18 months later than the March 2028 date shown in the Navy’s FY2024 budget submission, which was submitted to Congress in March 2023. CVN-81 (Doris Miller) is treated in this report as a ship that was procured in FY2019, consistent with congressional action on the Navy’s FY2019 budget. (The Navy’s FY2025 budget submission, like its FY2021-FY2024 submissions, shows CVN-81 as a ship that was procured in FY2020.) The ship is scheduled for delivery to the Navy in February 2032. CVN-80 and CVN-81 were procured under a two-ship block buy contract.

CVN-82 (William J. Clinton), as noted above, is projected for procurement in FY2030 under the Navy’s FY2025 budget submission. Procuring CVN-82 two years earlier, in FY2028, could involve providing roughly $550 million in AP funding for the ship in FY2025. CVN-83 (George W. Bush) is projected for procurement in FY2034 under the Navy’s FY2025 30-year (FY2025-FY2054) shipbuilding plan.

Oversight issues for Congress for the CVN-78 program include the following:

• faulty welds on certain new Navy ships, including Ford-class carriers, that were first reported in late September 2024;
• whether to procure CVN-82 in FY2030 (as proposed in the Navy’s FY2025 budget submission), in FY2028 (as scheduled in prior-year Navy budget submissions), or in FY2029;
• whether to procure CVN-82 and a subsequent aircraft carrier (which would be CVN-83) as a two-ship buy that would similar to the two-ship buy that was used for procuring CVN-80 and CVN-81;
• the future aircraft carrier force level;
• CVN-78 program issues that were raised in a January 2024 report from the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) and a June 2023 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on DOD weapon systems; and
• the procurement of aircraft carriers after CVN-81 or CVN-82.

Download the document here.