Overview
- As of late October 2026 the USS Gerald R. Ford remains in Norfolk Naval Shipyard for its first public Planned Incremental Availability while the USS John F. Kennedy has passed preliminary acceptance and is about 99 percent complete but still requires system testing and certifications.
- New technologies — the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) and Advanced Weapons Elevators (AWE) — are still being recalibrated or tested and have driven schedule slippage across both Ford‑class ships.
- Norfolk Naval Shipyard is performing the Ford’s depot work for the first time while Newport News Shipbuilding retains design authority, a split that requires engineering questions to travel between yards and can add days to repairs.
- Extended Ford deployments produced emergent damage that increased repair needs, including a prolonged laundry‑room fire that wrecked berthing and prompted the Navy to take 1,000 mattresses from the unfinished Kennedy for crew use.
- The Navy has issued contract modifications to address unplanned work, including a $17.6 million award tied through March 2027, and analysts project that the Ford may not be realistically deployable until early 2028 (this is an informed projection, not a confirmed schedule).