The U.S. Navy will drop from 11 to 10 aircraft carriers for about a year once the USS Nimitz is decommissioned next year, as recent budget documents show a new carrier will be delayed from its original delivery date.

According to the Department of Defense Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget estimates, Newport News Shipbuilders was expected to deliver the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) to the Navy by July 2025, but that has since shifted to March 2027.

“The CVN 79 delivery date shifted from July 2025 to March 2027 (preliminary acceptance TBD) to support completion of Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) certification and continued Advanced Weapons Elevator (AWE) work,” FY 2026 shipbuilding budget book reads.

Both the Advanced Arresting Gear certification and Advanced Weapons Elevator work are systems that were incorporated into the Ford class carriers.

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HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia told USNI News that it is taking lessons learned and applying them with the new ships in its class.

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“Specifically, John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) construction was fairly advanced when many Ford lessons were realized, precluding timely implementation of lessons learned for Kennedy,” Todd Corillo, HII company spokesperson, told the publication. “In contrast, Enterprise (CVN 80) and Doris Miller (CVN 81) have been able to incorporate, leverage and capitalize on Ford lessons learned earlier in the construction process.”

Also being shifted was the delivery of the USS Enterprise (CVN-80), which was expected to be delivered in September 2029, but has since been pushed back to July 2030.

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“The CVN 80 delivery date shifted from September 2029 to July 203 due to delays in material availability and industry/supply chain performance,” the document’s footnotes read.

USNI reported that the Navy originally planned to pursue a dual-phase delivery approach for the Kennedy but has since switched to a single-phase delivery, which added two additional years of work to the vessel’s design and construction contract.

Under the new plans, the Kennedy would be outfitted to handle the fifth-generation F-35C Joint Strike Fighter Lightning II and be outfitted with the new Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar, USNI reported.

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Officials originally thought the dual-phase approach would save the Navy money when it came to construction costs and by minimizing the downtime between the Nimitz decommissioning and Kennedy delivery.

These delays come as the USS Nimitz prepares to be decommissioned.

Commissioned on May 3, 1975, the Nimitz is the oldest active aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy.

It is currently on its final sea voyage in the Middle East, as the Nimitz is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2026.

The deployment is significant because the Nimitz was also deployed in 1980 when its helicopters were part of the failed U.S. effort known as Operation Eagle Claw to rescue the American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. The U.S. has been in a shadow war against Iran ever since.

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

Original article source: Navy’s carrier fleet faces temporary reduction through 2027 as new ships hit development snags

Two aircraft carriers slated to shore up the U.S. Navy now face more construction delays, according to the Navy’s 2026 budget documents.

The USS John F. Kennedy, which is set to replace the USS Nimitz upon its retirement in May 2026, had its delivery pushed back from July 2025 to March 2027 in order to fully certify its system for catching landing planes and complete its elevator, according to Navy fiscal year 2026 budget documents. Additionally, the USS Enterprise also had its delivery date pushed back from September 2029 to July 2030 due to “delays in material availability and industry/supply chain performance.”

The Kennedy was previously delayed in 2023 to the subsequently-postponed July 2025 delivery date in order to continue construction. Navy Secretary John Phelan has made it a key policy priority to restore America’s shipbuilding capacity after years of delays due to the U.S.’s hemorrhaging industrial capacity. (RELATED: Navy Slapped With Massive Lawsuit Over Fuel Leak)

After the USS Nimitz retires, the Navy will drop to only 10 carriers in the fleet until the Kennedy sets sail. The U.S. Navy once fielded 99 carriers during the peak of World War II.

Shipbuilding has become a key weakness in U.S. policy on China, as Beijing eclipsed the U.S. Navy’s total ship count in 2020 with 360 ships compared to 296 in the U.S. fleets. Naval shipbuilding overall has been plagued by massive delays, with some contractors extending their deadlines for ship delivery by up to three years.

President Donald Trump announced in March the creation of a new office solely focused on reviving American shipbuilding. The overall decline of the U.S. industrial base has been a large contributor to the shipbuilding lag, with manufacturing jobs falling from 19.6 million in 1979 to just 12.8 million jobs in 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Navy did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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Production delays, rising threats and shrinking numbers are putting the US’s traditional aircraft carrier dominance on a knife’s edge just as China surges ahead at sea.

This month, in a hearing before the US Senate Armed Services Committee, US Navy officials acknowledged schedule setbacks for two Ford-class aircraft carriers under construction.

The USS John F Kennedy (CVN-79), which is almost 95% finished, is under heavy pressure to meet its scheduled delivery date of July 2025. This pressure is mainly due to Advanced Weapons Elevators and the Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment issues.

While the initial design issues that plagued the class have been resolved, as demonstrated by the USS Gerald R Ford’s (CVN-78) successful 2024 deployment, production-specific hurdles continue to delay progress on CVN-79.

Meanwhile, construction of the USS Enterprise (CVN-80), currently 44% complete, is also running behind schedule.

The delay is attributed to late-sequenced critical material, which US Navy officials say will “significantly delay delivery past the contractual date.” The US Navy works closely with shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries-Newport News Shipbuilding (HII-NNS) and critical path vendors to mitigate the schedule risks.

Although no updated delivery dates were given for either ship, the testimony emphasized that insights gained are being utilized to enhance operational efficiency in CVN-80 and the USS Doris Miller (CVN-81).

Despite the persistent construction obstacles, the US Navy is concentrating on reaching the quickest route to having a combat-ready aircraft carrier, crew and air wing.

Underscoring the urgency of having the CVN-79 and CVN-80 ready as soon as possible, Tal Manvel mentions in a February 2025 Proceedings article that the Nimitz-class carriers urgently need replacement as they approach decommissioning due to limitations in power, space and weight highlighted during a 1995 system analysis.

Manvel warns that retiring the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) in 2026 and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) in 2027—without promptly initiating the next Ford-class dual buy for CVN-82 and CVN-83—will reduce the fleet below the legally required 11 aircraft carriers and disrupt shipyard efficiency by creating a costly seven-year production gap.

Despite debates over their relevance, the US’s continued building of aircraft carriers ensures their place as a centerpiece of force projection, regardless of their growing vulnerability.

Underscoring the point, Mark Cancian and other writers mention in a January 2023 report for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank that the US lost two carriers in a simulation of a US-China conflict over Taiwan.

Further, Steve Balestrieri mentions in a March 2025 article for 1945 that while China and Russia have hypersonic missiles that can sink US carriers, the US has no effective defense against such weapons. Balestrieri adds that stealthy conventional submarines can evade a carrier’s defenses, possibly sinking the latter.

In line with those threats, Cancian and others note that the US only avoided losing its carriers in optimistic Taiwan war scenarios when it didn’t push its fleet forward as a deterrent signal. Nevertheless, US carriers may still have a role to play in such a conflict, provided they are kept out of harm’s way.

In a February 2022 article for The American Sea Power Project, Thomas Mahnken proposes that carriers could be part of an “outside force” in the Second Island Chain that acts as a strategic reserve to prevent China from projecting power beyond the First Island Chain while supporting US offensive operations.

Alternatively, Trevor Phillips-Levine and Andrew Tenbusch mention in a July 2024 article for the Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC) that the US could use its carriers as a “fleet-in-being” decoy to tie down significant Chinese resources and weapons that could otherwise be used against the US in a war over Taiwan.

While the US may have the world’s largest carrier fleet at 11 ships, that number might not be enough for great power competition with China. Kyle Mizokami mentions in a March 2021 article for Popular Mechanics that during the Cold War, the US had 13 to 15 carriers, compared to today’s minimum mandated strength of 11 ships.

Mizokami points out that the rule of thirds typically governs carrier deployments—one-third of the fleet is on patrol, one-third is returning from patrol, and one-third is undergoing repair and maintenance. With the US having just 11 carriers, he says four might be available for operations, but that number could surge to five or six in an emergency.

As of April 2025, Newsweek reports that the US has three carriers deployed in the Pacific: the USS George Washington (CVN-73), based in Japan; the USS Nimitz (CVN-68), moving into the Western Pacific to replace the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70); and the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), operating in the Eastern Pacific.

Mizokami mentions that the US Atlantic and Pacific carrier fleets are already overstretched and that adding a 12th carrier could alleviate some of the strain. He also suggests that the US could decide that it doesn’t need carriers in certain regions all the time and scale down deployments, but that risks degrading deterrence against potential adversaries such as Iran and China.

But could the US put 12 carriers at sea? In an August 2024 article for The National Interest (TNI), Peter Suciu mentions that a Ford-class carrier costs around US$13.3 billion and requires hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain.

Suciu notes that carriers’ complexity and cost make them tempting targets, and if they were to be damaged or lost in combat, that would mean a waste of billions of dollars and seriously impair US force projection capabilities.

Moreover, a report from the US Congressional Research Service (CRS) from January 2025 indicates that although the US Navy plans to ultimately deploy 12 aircraft carriers as a part of its projected 381-ship battle force fleet, there are considerable obstacles to reaching and maintaining this target.

According to the report, the US Navy’s FY2025 30-year shipbuilding plan projects reaching 12 carriers in only three years within the FY2025–FY2054 timeframe—2025, 2029, and 2032—with the carrier fleet dropping to nine by 2047 in some scenarios. It notes that barriers include budget constraints, delays in ship construction and industrial base limitations.

While the US struggles with building and maintaining its carriers, China seems to be progressing apace.

Kris Osborne mentions in a March 2025 article for 1945 that China, with the world’s largest navy, now has three carriers in the Pacific and is building a fourth, the Type 004, which could be its first nuclear-powered carrier to rival or even be larger than the US Ford class.

Osborne notes that while China faces the same arguments regarding the utility of carriers in modern naval warfare, the construction of the Type 004 shows that it still sees these ships as relevant.

He mentions China’s development of ship-based defenses and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities to detect incoming anti-ship missiles, underscoring its military planners’ belief that carriers could provide unique and extremely valuable advantages in war.