Since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, and the subsequent mass downsizing of the USN from 1994-onward. With decades of continued sea blindness, increasingly isolationist tendencies, and massive post-Cold War budget cuts have left the US Navy continuously shrinking year by year, some little, and some big. When the USSR dissolved in the 1990s and the Soviet navy subsequently dismantled and sold to whoever could afford it at the time, left the US with a rather "rudderless" navy, rudderless in terms of no reason, no enemy and a government eyeing to slash the budgets. Despite the awe-display of American power in the 1990s during the gulf war, the involvement of NATO in the Yugoslav Civil War; the US Navy's decay is more prevalent now, more than ever before. At the end of World War II in 1945, the USN had surpassed the Royal Navy with over 1,200 warships, with nearly 380 warships alone partaking in the surrender of Japan; to 2007 where the US Navy had the lowest fleet number since the beginning of World War I at 274 warships; while this isn't inherently a bad ordeal given that a multitude of the warships in the fleet at the time (of 2007) could match the power of tens if not dozens of warships at the end of WWII just by themselves.
There is an unfortunate crisis in the U.S and it is indirectly the fault of the Ronald Reagan administration's liberalization and privatization of American shipyards; in the current year of 2025, the US currently builds less than 0.1% of ships in the world, having what was once an absolutely massive manufacturing capability of nearly 70 shipyards and over a dozen government ran "Navy yards" which were operated by the US Navy directly, down to a measly 4 navy yards and 10 shipbuilding-capable, privately (or public company) ran yards; this is not counting the near 300-private ran shipyards and dockyards across the U.S that maintain ships and haven't ever tried, nor have the capability to produce a ship in the terms that we are speaking about here. Outside of the lack of shipyards issue and the masses of red tape of bureaucracy, lies the next biggest issue of the U.S and that is simply manpower.
In the age of automation and the still ever-present need of manpower, skilled manpower specifically; the US finds itself needing it now more than ever, especially given the ever-growing list of programs running behind schedule, such as the Constellation-class Guided Missile Frigate program or even the Columbia-class Nuclear-Powered Ballistic Missile Submarine program, just to name a few.
As the euphoria of the USSR collapsing died off, realization sat in for a multitude of companies, not just for shipbuilders as multitudes of companies were forced to merge, consolidate, etc: While these consolidations saved the U.S Defense Industry as quietly as possible, also condemned manufacturing capabilities at the same time while skilled manpower became a commodity that you could either afford to keep on payroll or they'd be lost to another industry elsewhere. Paired with all of this, is also the upkeep of the existing navy fleet; which cascaded the manpower problem as ships in maintenance occupied docks and slips that could have be used to build new warships to complement or replace older ships whose maintenance demand can only go upwards as time goes on. As a result, fewer than 40% of U.S. Navy warships completed availability repairs on schedule, and almost all new shipbuilding programs face currently, anywhere from one to three years of delays, if not more depending on the circumstances.
While the Department of Defense has put additional programs into funding that will fix these aforementioned issues, none of this will be fixed in the short while, and will likely not see the affects of this until well into the 2040s when the US has completely rebuilt the dying industry from the ground-up. The US Navy is on average losing more hulls to retirement than they are replacing them, almost on a 3-to-1 ratio, while this could be temporarily fixed in the short term, AND benefit allies such as the Republic of Korea, or the Republic of Japan by negotiating the maintenance of US Warships already in the area, such as the US Navy 7th Fleet, which has to go all the way back to the US from the Korean Peninsula/Japanese waters just for maintenance that they cannot do on their own; The Department of Defense could go even further, entrusting the build of new US Warships to some of these shipyards as they have proven their capabilities building new AEGIS-equipped warships such as the Japanese Atago-class or even their newer Maya-class AEGIS-equipped Guided Missile Destroyer; or the Korean Navy's Sejong the Great-class AEGIS-equipped Guided Missile Destroyer, which all 3 of the aforementioned designs are based off the U.S's own Arleigh Burke-class Guided Missile Destroyer. Regardless of these current potentials, these options could definitely be a win-win given the current stranglehold that the People's Republic of China is in shipbuilding, in both the militaristic and merchant-side of the industry.
Despite the current ordeals, it is up to the U.S Congress and Department of Defense, regardless of how controversial it is; to either help alleviate the dying navy by expanding contracts to (and helping) Korean and Japanese shipyards, or bite the figurative bullet and hope to bide their time in the current geopolitical climate against the Chinese in hopes to hold out until the 2040s where they'll hopefully be able to see if their programs have gained any fruition.
The United States still fields the ever-impressive fleet composing 11 Nuclear-powered Supercarriers of both Nimitz-class (10) and the newer Gerald R. Ford-class (1 in service, 1 in pre-sea trials and 2 under construction), well over 80 Destroyers/Cruisers and an ungodly amount of submarines, the U.S doesn't suffer from a real lack of ships, but more the age and technological maturity of ships; while twelve warships of the Guided Missile Destroyer Arleigh Burke-class were recently announced to be kept in service beyond their initial projected service life, mostly due to the forced retirement of the Ticonderoga-class Guided Missile Cruiser, which is the first ever AEGIS-equipped warship within the US fleet. However, aside from this; the US Navy suffers from a clear lack of smaller surface combatants based on their own High-Low doctrine, and with the failure of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS for short) program and the Constellation-class Guided Missile Frigate (FFG) being delayed by at least 2 years so far, with a clear lack of proper logistical ships (not to mention manpower needed) And the current issues of replacing and growing the fleet, the US Navy could hypothetically shrink further than intended.
Here is a very simple rundown of a few US Navy ongoing projects and issues in relation.
Gerald R. Ford-class Aircraft Carrier (CVN); the successor to the Nimitz-class, while slightly longer, features a boatload of technology and automation compared to its predecessor. Currently 2 are finished (USS Gerald R. Ford & USS John F. Kennedy) at a rough cost of $14 Billion per ship, which is the cost of nearly 3 Nimitz-class carriers, is limited by the sheer massive size of the carrier at nearly 1,110ft (337 meters) in length, so far only one shipyard in the U.S, Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Virginia is proven to be capable of building these behemoths, not to disregard the sheer amount of new tech onboard, including a brand new series of radar, new countermeasures, the first ship & class to feature Electromagnetic Launch & Recovery systems (Commonly referred to as "EMALS"), and much more.
The Constellation-class Guided Missile Frigate (FFG); built by Fincantieri Marinette Marine in the Great Lakes State of Wisconsin, is a highly modified design based off the French-Italian "FREMM" Multipurpose frigate that is in service with the French, Italian, Egyptian and Moroccan navies currently, the US variation is not only the heaviest of the variations but is also the most modified, the primary issue so far is not only the fact that a singular shipyard with a massive lack of manpower is building it, but also the fact that the US Navy's FFG(X) program for a new frigate did not have a long enough timeframe for contractors to propose a new-build design and instead forced them to seek out existing designs that could accommodate future and existing American technologies while keeping up with the Carrier Strike Groups.
The Columbia-class Guided Ballistic Missile Submarine (SSBN); a Nuclear powered replacement for the quietest submarine in the world currently, the Ohio-class SSBN, with 12 ships planned in it's class and 1 currently being built since 2020, the lifetime cost of the dozen nuclear-powered submarines is expected to cost the US Navy approximately $132 Billion, with a lower payload capacity and a 42-year service life compared to the Ohio-class's 45-year service life; the Columbia-class is built with a plethora of new technologies such as a nuclear power plant that does not need a mid-life refueling like previous submarine and aircraft carrier reactors need, a Nuclear/Electric propulsion and drivetrain system, etc. The Columbia-class is being built by the legacy submarine builder; General Dynamics Electric Boat, based out of the Northeast in Groton, Connecticut.
The Flight III (Flight 3) Arleigh Burke-class Guided Missile Destroyer, the final continuation of the most-produced surface warship since World War II; is a stop-gap to fill the loss of the Ticonderoga-class Guided Missile Cruisers within the US Navy, but also the failed Zumwalt-class Stealth Guided Missile Destroyer. The Flight III shares a lot with the previous Flight IIA and IIA Technology Insert "Burkes", such as the 96-cell Mark-41 Vertical Launch Systems for missiles, but also features a handful of things from the Zumwalt-class such as the SPY-6 Radar system, new electro-optical sighting systems. At 509.5ft (155.3 meters) in length and the heaviest of the iterations of the Arleigh Burke-class DDG at 9,700 tons, it's last major (unclassified) feature is the fact that it is primed and ready for the US Navy's long anticipated, and awaited Directed Energy Weapons (DEWS), which is currently being field tested on the USS Preble under the HELIOS (Acronym for: High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance).
While U.S Naval Aviation seems pretty well-off compared to the rest of the U.S Navy; it is no secret that following the forced retirement of the F-14 Tomcat in the early 2000s, that the USN lost a few capabilities such as high speed interception. While the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet does a fairly decent job at covering just about everything for the USN including Electronic Warfare (EA-18 Growler) with the exception of recently bolstered capabilities by the F-35C Lightning II in short/medium range stealth capabilities and of course, transportation. Since 1968, the US Navy has used a derivative of the E-2 Hawkeye Airborne Early-Warning aircraft called the “C-2 Greyhound” for transport, both short-range and long-range to aid in resupplying the carriers and shuffling people & aiding in personnel transfers; which is planned to be fully phased out by 2028 by the controversial Tilt-Rotor, VTOL-capable V-22 Osprey Rotarycraft. Overall, the US Naval Aviation seems to be in relative good health for the time being, and only time will tell if the 6th Generation F/A-XX Naval Fighter program will be capable of replacing the Super Hornet in it’s entirety.
Somethings to keep an eye on as time progresses are;
The Boeing MQ-25 "Stingray" a carrier-based Unmanned Aerial Refueling Vehicle which not only restores an organic aerial refueling capability to American carrier strike groups that the US Navy lost in 2016 with the retiring of the Lockheed S3 Viking; but would also pave the way for the future F/A-XX aircraft, additional Unmanned Assets such as the Loyal Wingman project, etc.
The Northrop Grumann X47A/B "Pegasus", an early 2000s-designed stealth Unmanned Carrier-based Combat Vehicle that had both the capability for aerial refueling and a 2-piece weapons bay with a planned payload of 4,500lbs (2,000kg) per bay. However as of concurrent, nothing has came of this outside the 2 flyable prototypes which the US Navy has kept in their custody/control since their last flights in 2015.