Carrier Doris Miller will now deliver to the Navy in February of 2034, according to the service’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget justification books. Last year’s books projected the ship’s delivery in February of 2032.

“The CVN-81 delivery date shifted from February 2032 to February 2034 due to shipbuilder construction footprint constraints limiting their ability to build CVN-81 ship modules,” reads the Navy’s FY 2027 shipbuilding book.

Under the new timeline, from the beginning of construction to Doris Miller’s delivery will take 15 years, according to the Navy’s schedule in the budget books.

Doris Miller is the fourth ship in the Gerald R. Ford class of aircraft carriers. In an effort to save money, the Navy purchased the ship in a block buy deal, announced in January of 2019, with the future USS Enterprise (CVN-80).

“CVN-81’s construction schedule has been affected by the cascading impact of CVN-80 delays on shipyard footprint capacity,” HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding spokesperson Todd Corillo told USNI News in a statement. “In turn, these capacity constraints have hindered initial CVN-81 structural build in the dry dock. We expect to host the keel laying this year.”

Corillo referred USNI News to the Navy for more details about the schedule for Doris Miller.

“CVN-81 units continue to move through steel fabrication and outfitting in support of the keel laying later this year,” Newport News Shipbuilding president Kari Wilkinson said Tuesday during HII’s Fiscal Year 2026 first quarter earnings call.

Enterprise is also facing an eight-month delay, according to the shipbuilding books.

“The CVN-80 delivery date shifted from July 2030 to March 2031 due to delay in critical path construction required for launch of the ship,” reads the documents.

That new schedule means it will take just over 12 years to build Enterprise.

“CVN-80 construction delays result from late arrival of large, sequence-critical equipment that hindered the initial structural build of the ship in the dry dock,” Corillo told USNI News in a separate statement. “All of the delayed critical material has since arrived.”

The Navy has attributed previous Enterprise delays to supply chain issues, USNI News reported in 2024.

In the earnings call this week, Wilkinson said supply chain issues caused the yard to build parts of Enterprise out of sequence, leading to delays.

“We have been on previous calls talking about some of that missing equipment down low on the ship and having that equipment delivered now and being on pace to erect out the ship is really going to help us from a performance perspective,” Wilkinson told investors. “Those delays are costly, as you’re familiar.”

All of the ships in the Ford class have faced delays at Newport News Shipbuilding. The future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), the second carrier in the class, was delayed multiple times over the last few budget cycles.

“Our shipbuilders are working alongside our U.S. Navy teammates and industry partners with urgency and resolve to deliver the submarines and aircraft carriers our nation needs,” Corillo told USNI News. “We are holding ourselves accountable to complete these important national security assets as quickly as possible by addressing production and supply base challenges impacting submarine and aircraft carrier programs.”

The Navy explored two different kinds of delivery options for JFK. At one point the service pursued a dual-phase delivery for the carrier in an attempt to save money but ditched that option in 2020, when Congress required that JFK have the capability to field the F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter before wrapping up its post-shakedown delivery.

The Fiscal Year 2016 shipbuilding budget books – which laid out the dual-phase delivery approach – projected the first stage of delivery in June of 2022 and the second in September 2024.

The carrier is now scheduled to deliver to the Navy in March of 2027. That timeline means it will take about 16 years to build JFK.