USNI News has reported that the US Navy expects further delays in the construction and delivery of the third and fourth nuclear-powered aircraft carriers under the Gerald R. Ford-class.
The third Ford-class carrier, the future USS Enterprise, was originally scheduled for delivery in early 2028. The delivery had been rescheduled to July 2030, only to be moved eight months to March 2031 according to budget estimates.
Delivery of the fourth carrier, the future USS Doris Miller, has also been delayed, with the target date now moved two years to February 2034.
Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division, the manufacturer of the Ford-class carriers, had earlier announced that renovations and other modifications would be carried out with the goal of enabling its existing dry dock to assemble two carriers simultaneously.
However, partly due to what the navy called "construction footprint constraints," NNS is still preparing to lay the keel of Doris Miller, more than four years after the cutting of her first steel.
The navy has been under pressure to maintain an 11-strong fleet of carriers in fulfilment of US Congressional requirements. As a result of this, the decommissioning of the carrier USS Nimitz has been postponed to 2027 at around the time of the commissioning of the future USS John F. Kennedy (pictured), the second Ford-class carrier.
