US Navy Aircraft Carriers: How Many Are There and Where Are They?

The U.S. Navy has 11 active aircraft carriers: ten Nimitz-class ships and the lead Ford-class ship, USS Gerald R. Ford. As of Oct. 26, 2026, the latest USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker placed USS George Washington and USS George H.W. Bush in the Arabian Sea, USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Philippine Sea, and USS Ronald Reagan and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower freshly out of port. The Ford was in a shipyard in Virginia.

Carrier positions change every week, and the Navy rarely announces them in real time. Everything below is dated and sourced, so you can see which facts are stable and which are a snapshot.

How Many Aircraft Carriers Does the US Navy Have?

Eleven, and that number is not an accident. Federal law requires the Navy to keep at least 11 operational carriers, according to the Congressional Research Service. The fleet is ten Nimitz-class ships, hulls CVN-68 through CVN-77, which entered service between 1975 and 2009, plus the Ford, commissioned on July 22, 2017. All are nuclear-powered, and each anchors a carrier strike group with an air wing, cruisers and destroyers.

The oldest ship is the Nimitz itself, now 51 years old. It was due to retire this year, but the Navy extended its service to March 2027 so the fleet would not drop to ten while the next Ford-class carrier is still being finished. That is the pattern across the whole force: shipbuilding delays keep old hulls in the water longer than planned, and long wartime deployments wear them down faster.

A carrier never sails alone. The Roosevelt's Strike Group 9, as USNI lists it, pairs the ship with Carrier Air Wing 11, a destroyer squadron and the cruiser USS Chosin. The air wing is a mix of F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornets, F-35C stealth fighters, EA-18G Growler jamming aircraft, E-2D Hawkeye radar planes and helicopters. The George Washington's wing, based in Japan, also flies the F-35C, so the Navy's stealth jet is already part of the Middle East force.

Where Are US Aircraft Carriers Right Now?

The most reliable public source is the weekly USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker, which compiles Navy releases and public imagery. Its latest edition is dated Oct. 26, 2026. It lists only deployed groups, so a carrier missing from it is in port, in maintenance or working up for deployment, not necessarily gone dark.

Arabian Sea. USS George Washington (CVN-73), based in Yokosuka, Japan, and USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77), from Norfolk, were both operating in the Arabian Sea in support of U.S. operations in the Middle East. Each is paired with a carrier air wing and destroyers.

Philippine Sea. USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), from San Diego, was taking part in Exercise Keen Sword 27 with Japanese, Australian, Canadian and French ships. The War Zone reported that two U.S. officials told Fox News the group is headed for the Middle East, which would put three carrier strike groups in the region in November unless one leaves first. The Navy has not announced that move.

Just departed. USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) left San Diego on Oct. 26 and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) left Norfolk on Oct. 24, both according to ship spotters cited by USNI News. Neither destination was stated.

In the yard. The Ford (CVN-78) entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard on July 7 after a record deployment of nearly 11 months. The shipyard commander told reporters in September that the six-month maintenance period is still on track, with a separate repair job for fire damage running alongside. USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) has been in a midlife refueling overhaul at Newport News since 2021, and the Nimitz is waiting out its final months.

US Navy Aircraft Carriers: Hulls, Homeports and Status

Homeports and commissioning years are standard fleet data. The status column reflects only what the Oct. 26 tracker reported and will be out of date by the next edition.

Carrier positions are hard to pin down for a reason. The Navy usually confirms a departure or a port visit after the fact, and operational security rules mean a ship can be reported only as being in a broad region. Analysts fill the gaps with satellite images, ship-spotter photos and Navy media releases, which is why USNI qualifies its map as approximate and why a carrier's exact location should never be treated as live data.

Why Are So Many US Aircraft Carriers Near Iran?

Fleet movements in the Middle East have been driven by the conflict with Iran that began in late February 2026. In mid-February, as tensions rose, the Pentagon ordered the Ford to join the Lincoln in the region. The Ford then stayed far past a normal deployment and suffered a laundry fire on March 12 that left more than 600 sailors without their sleeping quarters, as we reported at the time.

The Lincoln did worse. It sailed from San Diego in November 2025 on a planned seven-month mission and spent roughly 250 days at sea without a full port call, a modern-era record Stars and Stripes reported. The Navy later swapped it out for the George Washington amid reports of exhaustion and shortages. Carriers can only hold a theater for so long. Overlaps are brief, which is why a new group arriving is usually followed within weeks by one leaving.

What Comes Next: The Ford-Class Program

The Ford class is meant to replace the Nimitz ships one by one, with electromagnetic catapults in place of steam, a higher planned sortie rate and a smaller crew. The program has been slow and expensive. According to the Navy's fiscal 2026 budget as summarized by CRS, the second ship, USS John F. Kennedy, is 54 months behind its original delivery date and is now due in March 2027. Its estimated cost is about $13.2 billion. The third, USS Enterprise, slipped to July 2030, and the fourth, USS Doris Miller, is scheduled for February 2032.

The Ford took a long road to the fleet. CRS notes it reached initial operational capability in December 2021 and began its first deployment in October 2022, more than five years after it was commissioned. Its early record was dominated by problems with new systems such as the weapons elevators and arresting gear, and some of that same work delayed the Kennedy.

The Ford itself also still needs upgrades before it can fully operate the F-35C, according to Forbes.

US Aircraft Carriers FAQ

How many aircraft carriers does the US have? Eleven active carriers: ten Nimitz-class and one Ford-class. A federal law requires the Navy to keep at least 11 operational.

Where is the USS Gerald R. Ford now? It is in maintenance at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia, where it arrived on July 7, 2026. The Navy expects the main work to take about six months.

Which US carriers are in the Middle East? As of Oct. 26, 2026, USS George Washington and USS George H.W. Bush were in the Arabian Sea, per USNI News. USS Theodore Roosevelt was reportedly heading there from the Philippine Sea.

What is the newest US aircraft carrier? The USS Gerald R. Ford, commissioned in 2017, is the newest in service. The USS John F. Kennedy is due to be delivered in March 2027.

How much does a new US aircraft carrier cost? The Navy estimates about $13.2 billion for the Kennedy, according to CRS, and the Ford-class ships that follow are expected to cost more.

Is any US carrier being retired? The USS Nimitz is scheduled to be inactivated in March 2027, which is when the Kennedy is due to join the fleet.

Positions in this article are as of Oct. 26, 2026, and are refreshed against the USNI tracker as new editions come out on Mondays.