USS Gerald R. Ford at Souda Bay, Greece in February 2026. Delays in construction have pushed the next four carriers’ commissioning dates to 2027, 2032 and 2034. (Hannah Donahue/U.S. Navy)
The Navy has revised the projected delivery date of the aircraft carrier USS Doris Miller to 2034 — two years later than previously expected.
The new date for delivery of the fourth Gerald R. Ford-class carrier — numbered CVN-81 — was listed in the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2027 Shipbuilding and Conversion Justification Book, released last week.
“The CVN-81 delivery date shifted from February 2032 to February 2034 due to shipbuilder construction footprint constraints limiting their ability to build CVN-81 ship modules,” the shipbuilding report says.
The shortage of physical space in the shipyard, slowing construction, has already had a domino effect on the Navy’s carrier replacement plans.
All carriers must be built at HII Newport News Shipbuilding, the only facility in the U.S. that can build nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
The USS George H.W. Bush was the last Nimitz-class carrier built. It was laid down in September 2003 and launched in October 2006 and received by the Navy at its commissioning in January 2009. The total time from keel laying to commissioning was five years and eight months.
Work then shifted to the new Gerald R. Ford class aircraft carriers. Work began on the initial ship, the USS Gerald R. Ford, in November 2009. The ship was launched in November 2013 and delivered at commissioning in July 2017. The total time from keel laying to commissioning was 7 years and eight months.
The second ship, the USS John F. Kennedy, was under construction in July 2015 and launched in October 2019. It’s expected to be commissioned in March 2027. If that deadline is met, the time from keel laying to commissioning would be 11 years and eight months.
Delays in shipyard work have pushed the expected delivery of the third ship, the USS Enterprise (CVN-80), an additional eight months compared to the estimate in the Navy’s 2026 shipbuilding plan. The ship’s keel was laid in April 2022.
“The CVN-80 delivery date shifted from July 2030 to March 2031 due to delay in critical path construction required for launch of the ship,” the Navy report says.
The dates would put the keel-to-commissioning time of the Enterprise at an estimated 8 years, 11 months.
U.S. Navy Cook Petty Officer Third Class Doris Miller is the namesake of the fourth planned Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier. Miller received the Navy Cross for bravery during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He died in action on Nov. 24, 1943, when his ship, the escort carrier USS Liscome Bay, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during the Battle of Makin in the Gilbert Islands. (U.S. Navy)
HII confirmed Monday that the lack of a construction schedule for the Doris Miller was being impacted by delays caused by the construction of the new USS Enterprise. Capacity constraints have hindered work in the dry dock, but the company hopes to host the keel-laying this year.
“We are holding ourselves accountable to complete these important national security assets as quickly as possible by addressing production and supply base challenges impacting aircraft carrier programs,” said HII spokesman Danny Hernandez
HII was continuing to expand and update its facilities at Newport News and using new technologies and a wider distribution of the workload to reclaim space in the shipyard.
The shipyard and the Navy have said delays in the carrier construction and other shipbuilding activity in recent years was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, supply-chain delays and the recruiting and retention of qualified workers.
The Navy is currently operating 11 aircraft carriers, the minimum number allowed under a congressional mandate.
The Pentagon planned to build 10 new Gerald R. Ford-class carriers to replace the old USS Enterprise (commissioned in 1961) and the 10 Nimitz-class carriers commissioned between 1975 and 2009.
The Navy had announced that the USS Nimitz would retire in 2025, only to roll that date back twice. It is now scheduled for decommissioning in March 2027. That is the same month its replacement, the USS John F. Kennedy, is scheduled to be commissioned.
Next up for retirement would be the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, commissioned in October 1977. The Navy had announced the carrier would retire in 2026, but has pushed the date into the early 2030s, when its replacement, the new Enterprise, would join the fleet.
The Doris Miller would replace the USS Carl Vinson, commissioned March 13, 1982.
The Navy announced in January 2025 that the next two Ford-class carriers would be named the USS William J. Clinton and the USS George W. Bush. They are expected to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt (commissioned in 1986) and the USS Abraham Lincoln (commissioned in 1989). No timelines for the construction of the carriers have been released.
