By Key Facts
- Aircraft Type: Ford-class aircraft carrier (CVN-79)
- Operator: US Navy
- Location: Newport News, Virginia / at sea
- Date: 13 August
The USS John F Kennedy departed Huntington Ingalls’ Newport News shipyard on 13 August to begin acceptance trials, marking a critical milestone for the second Ford-class aircraft carrier ahead of an anticipated entry into frontline service in the first half of 2027. The nuclear-powered flattop is scheduled to replace the USS Nimitz, which is expected to be decommissioned after returning from its final deployment in July.
USS John F Kennedy: Delayed but Advancing
The Kennedy’s projected commissioning date already represents a roughly two-year slip from the Navy’s original schedule — a delay that has drawn White House scrutiny of the entire Ford-class programme. Acceptance trials will put onboard systems and components through their paces at sea before the ship is formally delivered to the Navy.
The vessel is designed to replace the USS Nimitz, the lead ship of the Nimitz class, which was commissioned in 1975 and has supported combat operations spanning the failed 1979 Tehran hostage rescue attempt, the Persian Gulf War, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Trump Orders Navy to Scrap Electromagnetic Catapults
On the same day the Kennedy sailed, President Donald Trump signed a directive ordering the Navy to abandon the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) on future Ford-class carriers. The memo gives the Pentagon 60 days to develop a plan for reverting to conventional steam-driven catapults. Electromagnetically driven weapons elevators aboard the Kennedy must also be replaced with traditional hydraulic lifts.
Designed by General Atomics, EMALS uses a linear induction motor to accelerate aircraft along the flight deck, replacing the steam-piston system that has been standard on US carriers since the 1940s. The technology offers more controlled acceleration and reduced airframe fatigue compared to steam — and the Navy itself reported in February that a record-setting 326-day deployment of the USS Gerald R Ford, from 2025 to 2026, demonstrated the system contributed to higher sortie generation rates than a Nimitz-class carrier. That deployment logged 12,200 flight launches and 5,760 flight hours.
“These systems are operating as designed,” the Navy said of EMALS following that deployment.
Which Ships Are Affected — and Which Are Not
The presidential directive applies specifically to CVN-81, designated the USS Doris Miller, which is not scheduled for commissioning until 2034. The third Ford-class vessel — the new USS Enterprise — is far enough along in construction that switching out EMALS and its weapons elevators would not be practical, so it will retain the electromagnetic systems.
Trump has been a long-standing critic of EMALS. During his first term, he publicly called the decision to abandon steam catapults the “wrong” choice and argued that steam “worked for about 65 years perfectly.” In 2019, he stated bluntly: “We’re going to use steam. We don’t need that extra speed.”
Meanwhile, China has moved in the opposite direction. Its CNS Fujian — the country’s first CATOBAR (catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery) carrier — incorporated electromagnetic catapults and began flight operations in late 2025, underlining the technology’s growing international relevance even as the US steps back from it on future hulls.
Related Coverage
