The USS John F. Kennedy after her water launch.
© Huntington Ingalls Industries
The next Ford class aircraft carrier will probably only be sent to the in 2025 US Navy delivered. That’s about a year later than planned. The aircraft carrier named John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) originally should have been ready in June 2024.
Rectify defects before delivery
“The Navy is trying to get more groundwork out of the Post Shakedown Availability to the actual construction period so that more capacity is available when the ship is delivered,” the US Navy documents say. Post shakedown availability is the construction work required to to fix deficiencies, which are determined during the test drives. This is often also the case other improvements carried out.
The expanded schedule is designed to ensure that upon completion, the John F. Kennedy is ready to ship in the Indo-Pacific to be deployed. Taiwan and Korea also fall into this area. The aircraft carrier is the first example of the Ford class to be deployed in this region. The class is about nuclear-powered aircraft carrierswhich represent the successors of the Nimitz class.
From the planned ones 10 copies of the Ford class only 2 have been built so far – including the John F. Kennedy. The aircraft carriers are equipped with the latest technology – including with electromagnetic aircraft catapults, replacing their steam-powered predecessors. Due to the modern equipment and massive size, it has a displacement of 100,000 tons, the Ford class is also called “Super Aircraft Carrier” designated.
The first aircraft carrier of the new class, the USS Gerald-R.-Ford, started operations in mid-2017. The test phase is almost over after 6 years. However, there were numerous delays during testing. The new aircraft catapults in particular caused difficulties several times (the futurezone reported).
Construction phase of the John F. Kennedy already extended
The John F. Kennedy already experienced delays in 2020, when it went from a 2-phase delivery to a single-phase delivery was switched. This is the Construction phase extended by 2 years been. The ship was initially planned for delivery in 2022. The shipyard Newport News should mostly complete the aircraft carrier, then pause and only later install other systems.
This should save money. The USS Nimitz, which has been in service since 1975, could have been replaced earlier by the Kennedy, while subsequent changes should have been made after delivery. The additional work on the Kennedy includes modifications for the use of the F-35C “Lightning II” Kampfjetsinstalling the Multifunktionsradars AN/SPY-6 and repairing vulnerabilities found on the USS Gerald R. Ford.
US Congress not satisfied with blueprint
However, the plan was scrapped. The US Congress, for example, criticized the fact that the new aircraft carrier would not have been compatible with the 5th generation of US fighter jets (F-35C) after the first construction phase. He therefore stipulated that this issue should be resolved before the warship is delivered.
The cost of the USS Kennedy is intended $11.3 billion be. That makes the warship $2 billion cheaper than the USS Ford, which was called that most expensive warship applies at all.
