July 20, 2024: The U.S. Navy has ten Nimitz Class aircraft carriers. The first entered service in 1975 and the last one in 2009. Each is expected to serve for fifty years. After the first 25 years, the carrier is out of service for several years so that a RCOH (refueling and complex overhaul), aka midlife refueling of the nuclear fuel, can be carried out, along a complex overhaul consisting of upgrades and repairs. Currently CVN-74 John C. Stennis is undergoing the midlife process but has encountered problems that will extend the midlife process 14 months. Rather than taking about four and a half years, it will take five and a half years. Stennis began the midlife overhaul in 2021 and was supposed to complete it by 2025, but that has now been extended to 2026. The navy blames this problem on the inability to attract enough qualified shipyard workers as well as shortages of materials needed for the work. The length of the Covid-19 pandemic, when no work could be done, was another part of the problem.

Some problems with the RCOH process had been fixed because of serious problems with the CVN-73 RCOH that underwent the process from 2017 to 2023. This was longer than expected and the crew of 5,000 were not adequately housed and otherwise provided for. The crew worked on the RCOH but under harsh conditions that led to how morale and several suicides. Part of this was because of poor leadership by the carrier officers but the navy also failed to come through adequate resources for feeding and housing the crew while their carrier was worked on.

The problems with CVN-74 were not present when an earlier midlife refueling was carried out for the CVN-70 Carl Vinson. This ship completed its mid-life refueling and overhaul in 2009. This took three years and cost $3 billion. The N in CVN means nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Until the 1970s the navy only had CVs, or non-nuclear powered carriers. Nuclear power brought many advantages, along with one major disadvantage, the need for midlife refueling.

Part of the midlife overhaul involves reloading the nuclear reactors requiring dismantling of part of the ship, which also allows many upgrades and replacements for electrical and mechanical systems. In effect the ship is largely rebuilt, enabling it to serve for another 25 years.

The Vinson entered service in 1982 and is scheduled to retire in 2032. But this isn't the only time a Nimitz undergoes scheduled shipyard maintenance. During a half century of service, there are three other trips to the dry dock, and a dozen other shorter stays in the shipyard. But the midlife work is the most expensive and takes the longest. All this is necessary to keep the carrier up to date in terms of technology, and deal with wear and tear. Other warships undergo similar periods of maintenance, but the nuclear boats all require mid-life refueling. However, a new generation of naval reactors do not require complex midlife refueling. These reactors are already being used in the Seawolf and Virginia class subs, as well as the new Ford class carriers.

Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are all going through or have completed the midlife process.

CVN-68 Nimitz entered service in 1975 and underwent its midlife refueling and overhaul in 1998–2001

CVN-69 Dwight D. Eisenhower entered service in 1977 and underwent its midlife refueling and overhaul in 2001–2005

CVN-70 Carl Vinson entered service in 1982 and underwent its midlife refueling and overhaul in 2005–2009

CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt entered service in 1986 and underwent its midlife refueling and overhaul in 2009–2013

CVN-72 Abraham Lincoln entered service in 1989 and underwent its midlife refueling and overhaul in 2013–2017

CVN-73 George Washington entered service in 1992 and underwent its midlife refueling and overhaul in 2017–2023

CVN-74 John C. Stennis entered service in 1995 and underwent its midlife refueling and overhaul beginning in 2021 and was supposed to complete it by 2025 but that has now been extended to 2026.

CVN-75 Harry S. Truman entered service in 1998 and expects to undergo its midlife refueling and overhaul beginning in 2025

CVN-76 Ronald Reagan entered service in 2003 and expects to undergo its midlife refueling and overhaul beginning in 2031

CVN-77 George H.W. Bush entered service in 2009 and expects to undergo its midlife refueling and overhaul beginning in 2037

Meanwhile the Nimitz class is undergoing replacement by the new Ford-Class. The USS Kennedy, CVN 79, the second of the new Ford-class carriers, is 18 months late, in part because the navy decided to delay ordering additional Ford-class carriers. The navy cannot afford to build as many Fords as it wants as quickly as it wants. This is in part due to the many problems the USS Ford CVN 78 encountered on its way to active service. The delay in buying more Fords also costs more money because suppliers can only offer discounts if they are guaranteed long-term orders. The navy has a difficult time getting those discounts because the primary budget problem is unpredictable financing. Congress has more demands for funding than can be afforded. The political process is one of continual negotiations to determine who gets what. In the last few years, the defense budget has been increasing, as a result of the Ukraine War. The current budget is $842 billion. That’s up from the pre-Ukraine 2021 budget of $705 billion. Aircraft carriers are the most important and expensive ships for the navy. The navy also needs destroyers and frigates to provide the escort component of a Carrier Task Force. There’s usually at least one SSN (nuclear powered attack submarine) for the escort force.

Another major expense is the new F-35 fighter-bombers replacing many of the existing, and older, aircraft carried on all nuclear carriers, including the Nimitz class carriers the Fords are replacing. Buying carriers in groups or blocks must be guaranteed in order to get the billions in block buying discounts. Congress doesn’t like to see so much of the military budget tied up with block buy guarantees. If the navy can make a convincing case for block buys, the legislators will go along. It’s a difficult process to negotiate and the Ford negotiations are not over yet. The navy is also building three more Fords, CVN-79 Kennedy, CVN-80 Enterprise and CVN 81 Doris Miller, which should benefit from the problems encountered by the and Ford and apparently solved by the time USS Kennedy enters service in 2025. Ford entered service in 2017 and the next three are expected to enter service in 2024, 2029 and 2032.

Introducing a new ship, especially a large ship like a carrier, is a complex and often painful process. Fords are finally emerging from that process. At the end of 2022 the first Ford, USS Ford (CVN 78) finally left for its long delayed operational stress test cruise. This meant two months at sea, operating as a fully functional aircraft carrier. This cruise revealed more equipment flaws, the main ones being continued problems with the EMALS catapults and the associated arrestor gear. That was not expected as the recent repairs to four JBD (Jet Blast Deflectors) mounted on the flight deck were monitored and found to have worked. The JDBs are relatively ancient tech, first introduced in the 1950s as more powerful jet aircraft became standard on aircraft carriers and deck crews needed protection from the dangerous blasts of heat coming out of jet engines as the aircraft prepared to take off. In August 2022 the Ford JBDs were found to have defective components that corroded and caused JBDs to fail prematurely. Substandard components have long been a problem in shipbuilding, especially when it comes to warships. These require a lot of exotic components not found on commercial vessels. Suppliers will often deliver substandard parts, either because of incompetence or fraud. This is another item on the long list of failures by the navy shipbuilding bureaucracy. The Ford-class ships were not exceptional when it came to these problems. The Fords were just the most expensive ship ever to be plagued by these problems.