WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy has launched a review of the design and costs of its Ford-class aircraft carrier, one of the service's most expensive and technologically advanced warships. The review is expected to be complete next month.

"It's a prudent and practical move aimed at examining the costs of the designs and the systems to make sure that they make sense and they have all the systems and requirements that we want going forward," Navy Secretary John Phelan said. Asked whether the review could lead to the cancellation of future Ford-class carriers, he said, "It's too early to say, but we will have carriers."

The review will examine the carrier's ability to launch and retrieve aircraft. It will also cover two additional planned but not yet contracted carriers named USS William Jefferson Clinton and USS George W. Bush. Three other Ford-class carriers are under construction: USS John F. Kennedy, USS Enterprise and USS Dorie Millier.

During remarks in the Oval Office last year, President Donald Trump claimed that the Ford-class carrier's magnetic catapults "didn't work." The ship's magnetic catapults provide less stress on planes, require less maintenance and reduce the ship's need for fresh water compared with older steam-powered catapult systems.

A Navy statement said the Ford-class carrier has been able to launch aircraft at a faster rate than older Nimitz-class carriers and offers increased "combat power and ability to maintain high-tempo global strike operations" in three parts of the world. The USS Gerald R. Ford has been on a deployment of more than 300 days since June 2025.

Budget documents made public recently did not list Ford-class aircraft carriers by name and instead referred to them only as "aircraft carrier," while naming other ships such as Columbia-class submarines and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers by class.

Trump unveiled a warship design dubbed the Trump-class battleship, estimated to cost more than $17 billion, $4 billion more than the Ford-class carriers. The Navy does not plan to pay for the first Trump-class ship, USS Defiant, until the 2028 budget year. Phelan said the current cost is an early initial estimate and he expects it to fall as the design is refined and further ships are built. He did not rule out the Trump-class battleship being powered by a nuclear reactor. "I go to the Ronald Reagan school of 'trust and verify,'" he said.