Discretionary Spending
Function 050 - National Defense
Stop Building Ford Class Aircraft Carriers
CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options (called Options for Reducing the Deficit) covering a broad range of issues, as well as separate reports that include options for changing federal tax and spending policies in particular areas. This option appears in one of those publications. The options are derived from many sources and reflect a range of possibilities. For each option, CBO presents an estimate of its effects on the budget but makes no recommendations. Inclusion or exclusion of any particular option does not imply an endorsement or rejection by CBO.
Billions of dollars | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 | 2031 | 2032 | 2033 | 2034 | 2025– | 2025– | |
Change in planned defense spending | |||||||||||||
Budget authority | 0 | 0 | -0.6 | -2.7 | -2.9 | -3.0 | -4.6 | -5.5 | -5.2 | -2.9 | -6.2 | -27.4 | |
Outlays | 0 | 0 | * | -0.2 | -0.8 | -1.4 | -2.0 | -2.7 | -3.5 | -4.0 | -1.0 | -14.6 | |
This option would take effect in October 2025.
Estimates of savings displayed in the table are based on the Department of Defense's 2025 Future Years Defense Program and the Congressional Budget Office's extension of that plan.
* = between -$50 million and zero.
The Navy's current 30-year shipbuilding plan includes the construction of new aircraft carriers.
Under this option, the Navy would stop building new aircraft carriers after the completion of its fourth modern Ford class carrier, which lawmakers authorized in 2019 and which the Navy expects to be completed in 2032. The Navy's plans to order the fifth Ford class carrier in 2030, designated as CVN-82, would be canceled, as would plans to purchase additional carriers in subsequent years.
Because those ships are expensive and take a long time to build, the Congress appropriates funds for construction over eight years, beginning two years before it authorizes a ship's purchase. To estimate the savings for this option, the Congressional Budget Office relies on the assumption that the Navy proceeds with its current shipbuilding plan and that the Congress authorizes the Navy to order the sixth carrier, designated as CVN-83, in 2034. If the Navy ordered it in 2035 instead, then the savings would be slightly less over the 2025–2034 period.