Construction On 10 September 2008, the U.S. Navy signed a $5.1 billion contract with
Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding in
Newport News, Virginia, to design and construct the carrier. Northrop had begun advanced construction of the carrier under a $2.7 billion contract in 2005. The carrier was constructed at the Huntington Ingalls (formerly Northrop Grumman)
Newport News Shipbuilding facilities in Newport News. The
keel of the new warship was ceremonially
laid on 14 November 2009 in Dry Dock 12 by President Ford's daughter, Susan Ford Bales. In a speech to the assembled shipworkers and
Department of Defense officials, Bales said: "Dad met the staggering challenges of restoring trust in the presidency and healing the nation's wounds after Watergate in the only way he knew how, with complete honesty and integrity, and that is the legacy we remember this morning." In August 2011, the carrier was reported to be "structurally halfway complete". In April 2012, construction was said to be 75% complete. On 24 May 2012, the important milestone of completing the vessel up to the
waterline was reached when the critical lower bow was lifted into place. This was the 390th of the nearly 500 lifts of the integral modular components from which the vessel is assembled. Huntington Ingalls reported in an 8 November press release that construction had "reached 87% structural completion". By 19 December 2012, construction had reached 90% structural completion. "Of the nearly 500 total structural lifts needed to complete the ship, 446 have been accomplished." The island was landed and accompanying ceremony took place on 26 January 2013. On 7 May, the last of 162
superlifts was put in place, bringing the ship to structural completion. On 11 July, a
time capsule was welded into a small room just above the floor, continuing a long Navy tradition. The time capsule holds items chosen by
Susan Ford Bales, and includes
sandstone from the
White House,
Navy coins, and
aviator wings from the ship's first commanding officer. The ship was originally scheduled for launch in July 2013 and delivery in 2015. with delivery in February 2016. On 3 October 2013,
Gerald R. Ford had four 30-ton, -diameter
bronze propellers installed. The installation of the propellers required more than 10 months of work to install the underwater shafting. On 11 October, the ship's
drydock was flooded for the first time to test various seawater-based systems. Her launch date was set to be on the same day as her naming ceremony on 9 November 2013. On 9 November, the ship was
christened by Susan Ford Bales, with a bottle of American
sparkling wine. The ship's crest was developed jointly by the ship sponsor and first commanding officer, Captain
John F. Meier. As of 2013, construction costs were estimated at $12.8 billion, 22% over the 2008 budget, plus $4.7 billion in research and development costs. Because of budget difficulties,
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral
Jonathan Greenert warned there might be a two-year delay beyond 2016 in completing
Gerald R. Ford. The GAO reported that the price cap would be met by the Navy accepting an incomplete ship for that cost. On 23 September 2015, the Navy announced that several weeks of testing delays would likely slip the delivery date into April or May 2016. In addition, construction was 93% complete as of September 2015. In July 2016, a memorandum was obtained by
CNN from
Michael Gilmore, the US Department of Defense's director of
Operational Testing and Evaluation indicating that problems with four major flight systems would further delay combat readiness of the ship. She was not expected to be delivered until November 2016, and these issues were suggested to further delay that goal. Construction of the ship was described as 98% complete, with 88% of testing finished. A video documentary of the construction was released by Newport News Shipbuilding in 2017. By March 2018, due to issues with the nuclear propulsion system and munitions elevators, construction costs had reached $13.027 billion, making
Gerald R. Ford the most expensive warship ever built. Planned delivery to the Navy was delayed again, by three months, to October 2019.
Performance improvements Gerald R. Ford is the first of a class of aircraft carriers intended to offer significant performance improvements over the previous .
Gerald R. Ford is equipped with an
AN/SPY-3 and
AN/SPY-4 active electronically scanned array multi-function, multi-band radar, with the Ship Self-Defense System (SSDS) Mk2 Baseline 10 of the Mod 6 variant command and control system. Its island, shorter in length and taller than that of the
Nimitz class, is set farther aft and closer to the edge of the ship. Replacing traditional
steam catapults, the
Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) will launch all non-
VTOL carrier aircraft. This innovation eliminates the traditional requirement to generate and store steam, freeing up considerable area below-deck. With the EMALS,
Gerald R. Ford can accomplish 25% more aircraft launches per day than the
Nimitz class and requires 25% fewer crew members. The Navy estimates it will save $4 billion in operating costs over a 50-year lifespan. According to an
Associated Press story: These performance enhancements were problematic in
Pentagon tests, and final software fixes for some of the problems were delayed until after the ship's
post-shakedown availability in 2019. The fix, requiring design changes, was installed and was verified during acceptance trials in May 2017. The Initial Operational Test & Evaluation milestone was achieved in April 2017. On 8 April 2017,
Gerald R. Ford got underway under her own power for the first time as she headed to sea for builder's trials. She completed the trials and returned to port at
Naval Station Norfolk on 14 April 2017. On 24 May 2017, she departed for acceptance
trials and completed them on 26 May 2017. On 18 June 2021,
Gerald R. Ford completed her first full-ship shock trial off
Ponce Inlet, Florida, to ensure that she is able to withstand battle conditions. of TNT was detonated underwater, measured as a 3.9 magnitude earthquake by
USGS. Additional tests were conducted in July and August, with the test detonations set off closer to the hull. The ship was determined to have passed the tests and this concluded the trials.
Delivery On 31 May 2017, Newport News Shipbuilding delivered
Gerald R. Ford to the U.S. Navy and her status was changed to
Special, in service. According to a GAO report in mid-2020
Gerald R. Ford was still reporting significant problems with the operation of her weapons elevators, while a DoD report in early 2021 stated that the ship was still not combat-ready, citing continuing problems with the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS). Designed to achieve 4,166 aircraft launches between operational mission failures, it instead accomplished only 181. On 20 March 2021,
Gerald R. Ford and the conducted Ready for Operations (RFO) by the
Italian Navy while transiting the Atlantic Ocean. In September 2022, Rear Adm. James Downey described the ship as "fully delivered" and has "met her initial operating capability".
Operational service 2022 Gerald R. Ford left Naval Station Norfolk for Task Force Exercise (TFEX) on 4 October 2022. The carrier was to conduct operations and training exercises alongside
NATO allies and partners throughout the Atlantic Ocean.
Gerald R. Fords
Carrier Strike Group 12 (CSG 12) included
Carrier Air Wing 8, ,
Destroyer Squadron 2 with , and , auxiliaries and , and the
United States Coast Guard cutter . Among the first NATO ships assigned to CSG 12 was the .
Gerald R. Fords first port visit outside of her home country was on 28 October 2022, to
Halifax Harbour in
Nova Scotia, home of
CFB Halifax, Canada's largest military installation and home port of the
Royal Canadian Navy's
Atlantic fleet. On 14 November 2022 the ship arrived in United Kingdom waters, for a four-day visit anchored in
Stokes Bay near
Gosport. She returned to Norfolk on 26 November 2022.
2023 flank , in the Mediterranean Sea, November 2023. departs USS
Gerald R. Ford, December 2023 On 3 May 2023,
Gerald R. Ford departed Naval Station Norfolk on her first full-length deployment and was scheduled to be operating in the 2nd and 6th Fleet's Area of Responsibility. On 24 May the ship arrived just outside
Oslo, Norway, for NATO
exercises, hosting a visit from Norway's
Crown Prince Haakon. She was scheduled to head towards the Arctic Ocean later for further drills. On 26 June the ship sailed to the
Mediterranean Sea and arrived at
Split, Croatia, for crew rest. In early October,
Gerald R. Ford conducted naval exercises with the Italian navy in the Ionian Sea. On 8 October 2023, the day after the
Hamas attack on Israel, the U.S. Secretary of Defense,
Lloyd Austin, directed the
Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean "to bolster
regional deterrence efforts." Along with the carrier, the group includes the cruiser
Normandy, and the destroyers
Ramage, , , and
Thomas Hudner. The U.S. later also sent -led
Carrier Strike Group 2 to the Mediterranean to supplement CSG 12 in the same mission. On 17 January,
Gerald R. Ford returned to Norfolk after an eight-month deployment. The carrier spent a total of 239 days away from Norfolk, conducted 43
underway replenishments, logged more than 10,396 sorties, and sailed more than .
2025 On 24 June 2025,
Gerald R. Ford began deploying from Norfolk, Virginia to the Mediterranean. Prior to the end of the
Twelve-Day War between
Israel and
Iran, the
Gerald R. Ford Carrier Group was expected to reinforce and , which would have boosted the US naval deployment in the Middle East to a total of three carrier groups, an unprecedented concentration of US naval power in recent years. The carrier group eventually transited the
Strait of Gibraltar and arrived in the Mediterranean on 19 July. On 17 August 2025,
Gerald R. Ford transited the
Strait of Dover, and moved into the
North Sea. On 12 September,
Gerald R. Ford arrived at
Oslo, Norway, for a scheduled port visit. Prior to arrival, the carrier and its strike group conducted operations in the North and Norwegian Seas, including joint exercises in the Arctic Circle with the Royal Norwegian Navy's and , Germany's , and France's and . marking the United States' largest military buildup in the Caribbean
in 30 years. On 11 December,
Gerald R. Ford was reported as involved in the seizure of a foreign oil tanker off the coast of
Venezuela.
2026 launches from the flight deck during
Operation Epic Fury. By February 2026, the ship had been deployed for about 9 months, one of the longest for carriers. It was reported on 18 February that it was told by US officials the carrier was likely to initially be deployed off the coast of Israel. On 20 February, it was reported that the ship was seen off the coast of
Gibraltar. On 27 February, the carrier was initially deployed off the coast of Israel. On the same day, a large number of
United States Air Force refueling planes were deployed in Israel, putting
Gerald R. Ford carrier air wings in range of Iran. Coordinated
Joint US and Israeli strikes on Iran began the following morning. The next day, US officials announced
Gerald R. Ford was launching aircraft as part of Operation Epic Fury. Media reports emerged starting mid-January revealing issues with the
Gerald R. Fords sewage system, which had been flagged by the US's congressional watchdog as early as 2020 as being poorly designed. While on deployment, a fire on 12 March that began in a dryer vent in the ship's laundry facilities quickly spread to the extent that it took 30 hours to contain and clean up, and injured two crew members. By the time the fire was finally extinguished, more than 600 crew members had lost their bunks and personal belongings, forcing them to sleep on tables and floors. The ship maintained war sorties during the efforts. The ship left the operational theater in order to undergo a first stage of repairs and refueling operations at
Crete Naval Base in
Souda Bay, Greece. The Navy announced that some 1,000 mattresses had been sent over the weekend from
Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, requisitioned from
Gerald R. Ford yet-to-be-commissioned sister ship . == Overhauls ==