The U. S. Defense Authorization Act of fiscal year 2007 requires the U. S. Navy to maintain no fewer than 11 combat-ready aircraft carriers.
However, on July 7, local time, the media suddenly found out from the US Navy’s FY2026 budget justification document that the number of aircraft carriers in the US is likely to be in violation of the law: due to production delays, delivery of the USS John F. Kennedy, a ford-class aircraft carrier, will be delayed until 2027 March, the Nimitz, the first of the nimitz-class carriers, is scheduled to be decommissioned in May 2026.
In the Nimitz retired after a year, the U. S. Navy’s active aircraft carrier number from 11 to 10, which violated the“Aircraft Carrier Act” provisions.
America’s aircraft carriers are not enough!
The decommissioning of the Nimitz was a last resort. The Big Brother was commissioned in 1975 and has outlived his design life. Due to fuel oil pollution of drinking water system, propulsion device material defects, continuous failure, has been unable to continue to complete the combat readiness mission.
The original plan was to build a new ford-class carrier to replace the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, which were being decommissioned. However, the ford, the first ship of the Ford class, encountered a series of difficulties, leading to the fact that 20 years later, it has not really become a fighting force, it was derided by U. S. lawmakers as“A $13 billion nuclear-powered floating mooring barge.”.
The Ford’s construction process has been long: it began cutting steel in August 2005, went into production in early 2007, installed its keel in November 2009, launched in 2013, and entered service in 2017.
At 2023, the Ford was deployed for the first time. However, due to problems with the electromagnetic ejection system, the carrier has so far been unable to carry F35C carrier-based fighters.
The Kennedy began cutting steel plates in 2011, installed its keel in 2015 and was launched in October 2019. Delivery of the 2024 to the Navy was originally planned for June, but was delayed until July 2025. Now that July 2025 has arrived, the 2027 has been postponed yet again.
Currently, the Kennedy is outfitting, which means installing equipment on board. This installation took eight years.
However, the carrier, which has not yet been delivered, has already had two captain changes and a fire. The Kennedy is expected to be 2028 as soon as possible before it can truly complete its sea trials and become operational.
The outfitting of the Kennedy was slowed down by the progress of the electromagnetic arresting cables and the ammunition elevators, which were the main problems on the ford.
But the U.S. Navy didn’t learn from the Kennedy’s mistakes and improve on them. They followed the Ford’s design, then wait until something goes wrong to fix it, causing the same problem to be repeated twice, and the cause to be attributed to a“Process problem”.
In October and November 2021, the U.S. Navy removed parts from the Kennedy to ensure it would enter its first combat readiness cruise in 2022 on schedule, even the ship’s auxiliary machinery and cables were removed, and the Kennedy’s participation in the“Organ donation” operation left the carrier under construction weakened.
The Kennedy was torn apart during construction, the outfitting schedule was pulled back rather than increased, and delivery times were delayed.
To maintain the Navy’s fleet of 11 carriers, a new one must be built after the old ones have been decommissioned. The Kennedy is scheduled to replace the Nimitz, and other carriers to be decommissioned include:
Eisenhower: 2027 retired and replaced by Enterprise;
Carl Vinson: Retired 2032, replaced by Doris Miller.
So how are the two new carriers coming along?
Construction of the enterprise began in 2022 and delivery is expected in 2030.
“Doris Miller” in 2021 cutting steel plate, not yet started.
Can these new carriers be built 2027 and 2032? At the pace of Ford and Kennedy, that would have been impossible anyway.
This means that by the time the 2032 comes, there will probably be only nine carriers left.
The level of illegality can be said to be quite serious!
Still, the U. S. Plan is ambitious. On January 13, the White House announced plans to build the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush Bush. As for when to build, that is no shadow of the matter.
But the joke is that the Navy doesn’t usually name ships after living people, so Clinton and Bush Bush will probably be dead by the time they’re built.
So Is it possible for the US to accelerate the construction of all these carriers by 2050?
Unfortunately, no. Because there’s only one shipyard that can build an aircraft carrier, and that’s the Newport News Shipbuilding. This shipyard is so busy that it is responsible for repairing and building aircraft carriers.
In the late 1960s, the United States began mass production of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. At the time, the US was at the height of its shipbuilding prowess, with a 100,000-tonne carrier taking just five years from construction to service. The US has built 10“Nimitz-class aircraft carrier” aircraft carriers.
However, after the end of the Cold War, the United States pursued a policy of de-industrialization and moved a large amount of basic manufacturing overseas, resulting in the decline of the U.S. shipbuilding industry, which ranked first in the world in terms of production capacity in 1975, now it’s down to world number zero. The civilian ship market has been all but withdrawn from global competition, leaving only capacity to be eked out by military orders.
At the same time, technicians and workers are starting to fall out of demand. Today, with the average age of a shipbuilder in the US at 52 and a welder at 55, there are few young people in the industry.
For now, the American Military–industrial complex continue to dominate shipbuilding, rejecting outside resources in the hope of keeping their interests firmly in their own hands, which has led to complacency.
America’s poor shipbuilding industry has also lengthened the maintenance cycle for American aircraft carriers, so that the current minimum time for an upgrade and a docking is seven months and 12 months, respectively, the medium-term reload overhaul is up to 40 months. The Washington entered the Newport News Shipbuilding in 2017 and was overhauled six years later. “U. S. aircraft carrier in repair shop” has become an internet meme.
Back in the Gulf War, the U. S. Navy at a stroke dispatched 8 aircraft carriers, highlighting the United States as the world’s only superpower style, that is how scenery.
Unfortunately, this scene is gone. Now, if anything happens in the world, the U.S. president may no longer be able to ask, ‘where are our aircraft carriers? ‘ because it doesn’t matter — the U.S. doesn’t have enough aircraft carriers!
Today, the alternative to violating the carrier act is to delay the decommissioning of old carriers for a few more years, or to Remove the firewood from under the pot and repeal the damn carrier act altogether. If only the house and Senate could work together, and Donald Trump could write with one stroke, all would be well!
Image from the Web