Update on US Ford Class aircraft carriers
Australian Naval Institute
14 December 2024
Source: https://navalinstitute.com.au/update-on-us-ford-class-aircraft-carriers/
USS Gerald Ford
On 13 December the US Congressional Research Service published the 34 page report “Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress”. In its summary it said:
The aircraft carriers CVN-78, CVN-79, CVN-80, CVN-81, and CVN-82 are the first five 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-82, as noted above, is programmed 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-80 and CVN-81 were procured under a two-ship block buy contract that was authorized by the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019. The use of the two-ship block buy contract reduced the combined estimated procurement cost of the two ships.
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.