Despite their many technological innovations, America’s Ford-class supercarriers have been unable to support operations with the F-35 fighter jet—until now. 

The United States Navy’s Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), the next aircraft carrier scheduled to enter service, remains on track for its official handover in March 2027. Until that commissioning takes place, 

On Tuesday, the service confirmed it reached a new milestone, completing the first arrested landing of an F-35C Lightning II fifth-generation stealth fighter on the aircraft carrier’s flight deck. The Navy also noted that the landing marked the “first time an F-35C” had landed on a Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier. (The USS Gerald R. Ford, the JFK’s predecessor and the first carrier in the Ford class, does not operate F-35s.)

The carrier-variant of the Joint Strike Fighter was “attached to the ‘Salty Dogs’ of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23,” the Navy wrote. “John F. Kennedy is underway conducting Aircraft Compatibility Testing, which assesses the operational capabilities of the ship’s aircraft launch and recovery equipment with US Navy aircraft.”

CVN-79 reportedly remains underway as of Wednesday. The tests come just weeks after the US Navy’s “preliminary acceptance” of the nuclear-powered supercarrier, and it follows the successful completion of the flattop’s acceptance trials in August.

The warship departed from Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia—a distance of only 15 nautical miles, but a trip that many naval observers had awaited for years!

What Further Tests Does the JFK Need?

The launch and recovery of the F-35C is part of the “at-sea testing” that will be conducted over the next few months before CVN-79 is officially commissioned into service as the USS John F. Kennedy.

As of last month, the US Navy reported that the second Ford-class supercarrier was “99 percent” complete, with all major systems installed. NNS is completing the final ship systems test, including the four Advanced Weapons Elevators (AWEs), a new and relatively untested technology.

Delivery of CVN-79 was delayed from summer 2025 to March 2027 in part to ensure that it could embark the F-35C as soon as it entered service. The USS Gerald R. Ford was delivered without F-35C compatibility, and it has deployed twice overseas without the carrier-based Lightning II variant in its air wings. CVN-78 will require additional modifications before it can operate with the fifth-generation stealth aircraft.

That could sideline the first Ford-class carrier for 12 to 24 months, but it could extend even longer given that the comprehensive overhaul to integrate the F-35C involves significant modifications to radar, flight decks, and internal life support systems.

About the F-35C Lightning II Carrier Fighter

• Year Introduced: 2017
• Number Built: ~150
• Length: 51.5 ft (15.7 m)
• Wingspan: 43 ft (13.1 m)
• Weight (MTOW): ~70,000 lb (31,800 kg)
• Engine: One Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-400 afterburning turbofan (43,000 lbf)
• Top Speed: ~1,200 nmi (1,380 mi, 2,220 km)
• Range: ~1,200 nmi (1,380 mi, 2,220 km)
• Service Ceiling: 50,000 ft (15,240 m)
• Loadout: Internal weapons bays; external pylons; 18,000 lb (8,200 kg) payload capacity
• Aircrew: 1

The F-35C is the US Navy and Marine Corps’ carrier-variant stealth fighter. One of the three variants of the “Joint Strike Fighter,” the F-35C was designed and built explicitly for US Navy carrier operations; in preparation for that role, it was tweaked from the conventional F-35A design, featuring larger wings, reinforced landing gear, and tailhook arrestors for catapult launches and trap recoveries from the service’s nuclear-powered flattops.

The larger wing area can minimize the landing speeds while maximizing range and payload capacity. The naval variant was also developed to launch from the flight deck of a large aircraft carrier through a steam catapult, but its future-proof design ensured it could be integrated with an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), while it can be recovered by using a tailhook arrestor.

Most of the other features of the standard F-35—including weapon loads, cockpit layout, countermeasures, and radars—are retained in the F-35C.

About the Author: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu has contributed to dozens of newspapers, magazines, and websites over a 30-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a contributing writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author at Editor@nationalinterest.org.

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