National Defense

New Navy Aircraft Carriers Face Delays As Shipbuilding Woes Persist

(Photo via Levi Meir Clancy / Unsplash)

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.

“Formal delivery is anticipated in March 2027,” a Navy Spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The Navy is exploring opportunities for preliminary acceptance of the vessel prior to formal delivery and is coordinating closely with stakeholders to ensure the fastest possible transition to fleet operations and a combat capable carrier.”

The Navy Spokesperson also confirmed to the DCNF that the delay for the Enterprise was due to the “late delivery of sequence critical material.”

“The Navy is working closely with the shipbuilder to improve those projections,” the spokesperson added regarding the Enterprise.

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.