By 2012 the oldest aircraft carrier in the fleet, the USS Enterprise (CVN 65), had been in service for 51 years; the Nimitz-class design was also reaching the end of its ability to be improved. Navy engineers began drafting CVN 21, the title given to the program to construct a new class technologically advanced super-carrier.

The first ship of the new class would have the hull number CVN 78. In 2006, Virginia Senator John Warner, who had served as Secretary of the Navy under Presidents Nixon and Ford, proposed naming the ship after Gerald Ford. Then-President George W. Bush agreed.

The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) is similar to the Nimitz-class carriers. Each has a hull of a similar design and length, each can launch four aircraft from their decks, and each can achieve more than 30 knots at sea. But the Ford is a carrier for a new century. Ford will be able to launch four fully loaded aircraft, where flight deck limitations restrict Nimitz to launching lighter aircraft. Ford also abandons the steam and hydraulic launch and recovery systems of past carriers. Electromagnetic launching and arresting systems will send aircraft aloft and trap them on return at a rate much faster than the Nimitz-class.

CVN 78 is fitted with two small, efficient nuclear reactors. These are enough to drive the launching rails and recovery lines, as well as a new antenna system. A smaller "island" (the superstructure that towers above the flight deck), is moved farther aft to create space for easier aircraft handling. A new lift system delivers munitions to the flight deck in a way that is safer and more efficient.

These are among the changes and efficiencies that result in a reduction in crew size and maintenance cost. The power generated by the reactors is enough to handle the full demands of the ship with enough in reserve to accommodate future improvements in technology and weaponry; the Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) will be taking the seas well into the later decades of this century.