How Many Aircraft Carriers Does the US Navy Have, and Where Are They?

The fleet is one Ford-class carrier and ten Nimitz-class carriers, listed here by hull number with the year each was commissioned. USS Nimitz (CVN-68) entered service in 1975, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) in 1977, USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) in 1982, USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) in 1986 and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) in 1989.

USS George Washington (CVN-73) followed in 1992, USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) in 1995, USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) in 1998, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) in 2003 and USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) in 2009. USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), the first of a new class, was commissioned on July 22, 2017. It is the newest and biggest carrier in the fleet, displacing about 100,000 tons fully loaded.

Every one of the 11 is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that launches jets with catapults. The Navy has had no conventionally powered carrier since USS Kitty Hawk was decommissioned in 2009.

As of the last week of October 2026, three carriers are deployed, three are working up for their next deployments, and five are in overhaul, post-deployment maintenance or their final months of service. The George Washington, normally based at Yokosuka in Japan, and the George H.W. Bush, about 210 days into its deployment, are both in the Middle East. The Theodore Roosevelt is in the Western Pacific for the Keen Sword exercise with Japan.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower left Norfolk for workups on October 24. The Ronald Reagan and Carl Vinson are in San Diego between training periods. The Nimitz went to sea for training on October 27, five months before its scheduled deactivation.

The rest are out of the rotation. The Abraham Lincoln returned to San Diego on October 8 after more than 320 days away and is moving to Naval Base Kitsap in Washington State for maintenance by the end of 2026. The Gerald R. Ford has been back in Norfolk since May 16, when it ended a 326-day deployment, the longest by a US carrier since the Vietnam War. The John C. Stennis has been in its mid-life refueling overhaul at Newport News since 2021, and the Harry S. Truman has begun the same overhaul.

Two, as of late October 2026: the George Washington and the George H.W. Bush, both enforcing the blockade. The peak came in April, when U.S. Central Command said three carriers were operating in the region at once for the first time since 2003, with the Ford in the Red Sea, the Lincoln in the Arabian Sea and the Bush arriving in the Indian Ocean.

The Ford and the Lincoln each spent more than 320 days away on those deployments, and the Lincoln came home claiming 64 Iranian vessels sunk. Both are now in maintenance. To keep two carriers in the region, the Navy sent the Washington from its base in Japan to relieve the Lincoln, and the Bush is now seven months into its deployment.

No. The US keeps no carriers in reserve, and federal law counts ships in maintenance as part of the active 11. The last two conventional carriers held in storage, the Kitty Hawk and the earlier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), were sold for one cent each in October 2021 to be scrapped in Brownsville, Texas. The Kitty Hawk arrived there in May 2022, and the Kennedy began its final tow in January 2025.

The Navy and Marine Corps also operate nine big-deck amphibious assault ships that fly F-35B jets and helicopters. In most other navies a ship that size would be counted as an aircraft carrier; the US keeps them out of its carrier total. The next one, USS Bougainville (LHA-8), is now due in July 2027.

Federal law sets the number. Title 10 of the U.S. Code, section 8062, requires the Navy to keep at least 11 operational aircraft carriers, and it counts a ship in routine or scheduled maintenance as operational. That rule explains why the Navy moved the Nimitz’s retirement from May 2026 to March 2027: leaving on the original date would have dropped the fleet to 10 before its replacement arrived.

The fleet has dipped below the minimum once in recent years. When USS Enterprise (CVN-65) was inactivated in December 2012, it fell to 10 carriers under a congressional waiver until the Ford was commissioned in July 2017.

About ten times as many as today, though most were small. Between December 7, 1941, and September 2, 1945, the US Navy operated 110 carriers, counting fleet, light and escort carriers, and commissioned 102 of them during the war. Most were escort carriers built on merchant ship hulls, a fraction of the size of a modern supercarrier.

Three more Ford-class carriers are under construction and two are planned. The future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) completed its acceptance sea trials in August, and the Navy took preliminary acceptance from Newport News Shipbuilding on September 29, with the ship about 99 percent complete. Formal delivery is planned for March 2027. In October it began aircraft trials, including the first F-35C landing on a Ford-class carrier on October 13.

Behind it, USS Enterprise (CVN-80) is now due in March 2031, and USS Doris Miller (CVN-81) in February 2034, according to the Navy’s budget documents. CVN-82 and CVN-83 have not yet been ordered. Because each new carrier replaces an old Nimitz, the fleet stays at about 11 for the next decade rather than growing.

The US has more aircraft carriers than the next five navies combined. China has three, the Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian, and no other country has more than three. India, Italy and the United Kingdom have two each. The full ranking is in our aircraft carriers by country table.