Future Aircraft Carrier Doris Miller Delayed by 2 Years

[rangerrebew]

Future Aircraft Carrier Doris Miller Delayed by 2 Years
Mallory Shelbourne
May 8, 2026 3:26 PM

Rendering of the third ship in the Ford class of aircraft carriers, Enterprise (CVN-80). HII concept art
One of the Navy’s Ford-class aircraft carriers is delayed by two years, stretching the schedule to build the future USS Doris Miller (CVN-81) out to 15 years, USNI News has learned.

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.

https://news.usni.org/2026/05/08/future-aircraft-carrier-doris-miller-delayed-by-2-years

[DefiantMassRINO]

Use emminent domain or the Defense Production Act to expand the footprint of the ship builder.  Aircraft Carriers aren't going to get smaller.

time = $$$

[libertybele]

Use emminent domain or the Defense Production Act to expand the footprint of the ship builder.  Aircraft Carriers aren't going to get smaller.

time = $$$

 

[Fishrrman]

Fifteen years?
Gee...
It's a good thing that there isn't a war on...

[BobfromWB]

Fifteen years?
Gee...
It's a good thing that there isn't a war on...

It will be obsolescent in 15 years.

[Cyber Liberty]

Who is Doris Miller?

[berdie]

Who is Doris Miller?

Thank you for asking. I wondered he same thing myself.

[PeteS in CA]

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Miller :

Doris "Dorie" Miller (October 12, 1919 – November 24, 1943) was a U.S. Navy sailor who was the first black recipient of the Navy Cross and a nominee for the Medal of Honor. As a mess attendant second class[1][2] aboard the battleship USS West Virginia, Miller helped carry wounded sailors to safety during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He then manned an anti-aircraft gun[3] and, despite no prior training in gunnery, officially shot down one plane (according to Navy Department records), but Miller and other eyewitnesses claimed a range of four to six.[4]

Miller received the Navy Cross from Admiral Chester Nimitz on May 27, 1942, but many sailors and naval officers believed that Miller's heroism deserved a Medal of Honor.[5] Miller was nominated for a Medal of Honor by a congressman from Michigan and a senator from New York, and the black press enthusiastically campaigned for Miller to receive this decoration. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, who opposed black sailors serving the United States in any combat role, recommended against Miller receiving the Medal of Honor.[6] No black sailor, soldier, or Marine was awarded the Medal of Honor between 1941 and 1945, and in 1996 Vernon J. Baker was the only black veteran of World War II to be awarded the decoration while still alive.[7]

In June 1943, Miller was promoted to Cook Petty Officer, Third Class.[5] In November 1943, Miller was killed in action when his ship, the escort carrier Liscome Bay, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during the Battle of Makin in the Gilbert Islands, with the loss of 702 officers and sailors – the deadliest sinking of a carrier in the history of the United States Navy.
...
Lieutenant Commander Doir C. Johnson, the ship's communications officer, spotted Miller and saw his physical prowess, so he ordered him to accompany him to the conning tower on the flag bridge to assist in moving the ship's captain, Mervyn Bennion, who had a gaping wound in his abdomen where he had apparently been hit by shrapnel after the first Japanese attack.[13] Miller and another sailor lifted the skipper but were unable to remove him from the bridge, so they carried him on a cot from his exposed position on the damaged bridge to a sheltered spot on the deck behind the conning tower where he remained during the second Japanese attack.[13][14] Captain Bennion refused to leave his post, questioned his officers and men about the condition of the ship, and gave orders and instructions to crew members to defend the ship and fight.[13] Unable to go to the deck below because of smoke and flames, he was carried up a ladder to the navigation bridge, where he died from blood loss despite the aid from a pharmacist mate.[13] He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.[15]

Lieutenant Frederic H. White had ordered Miller to help him and Ensign Victor Delano load the unmanned number 1 and number 2 Browning .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns aft of the conning tower.[16] Miller was not familiar with the weapon, but White and Delano instructed him on how to operate it. Delano expected Miller to feed ammunition to one machine gun, but his attention was diverted and, when he looked again, Miller was firing one of the machine guns. White then loaded ammunition into both machine guns and assigned Miller the starboard machine gun.

[Cyber Liberty]

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Miller :

Oh!  So so it's a DEI naming!

[berdie]

Thanks @PeteS in CA

[Hoodat]

Oh!  So so it's a DEI naming!

I'll take Doris Miller any day over the James Earl Carter, William Jefferson Clinton, Baraq Hussein Obama, or Joseph Robinette Biden.

[Smokin Joe]

Oh!  So so it's a DEI naming!

Not so much. Despite not having combat training, Miller undertook that role and fought. He was KIA. Considering some of the attitudes of the time, that he got a Navy Cross means he did something downright heroic. No one handed out DEI awards then, if anything, it was the opposite.