How Old Are The Ships Of The World's Navies? (2025)

Back in 2018, I took a look at the average age of the warships in the dozen most powerful navies around the world. The results were quite interesting but were only a snapshot of the fleets at the time. Now that a few years have passed, I used the same methodology again to get an idea of not only how old the fleets are, but whether they are aging or getting younger. The results were not what I expected, and revealed aging fleets almost across the board, especially among Western navies.

For these comparisons, I only considered aircraft carriers (including flattop amphibious ships), submarines (excluding ballistic missile submarines), and surface combatants of over 100 meters in length (excluding coast guard and training ships). In the national breakdowns, I further separated large surface combatants and small surface combatants, with the former being ships of at least 150 meters in length. This is important as several fleets have significant differences in average age between the two.

Of the 12 navies surveyed, 8 had older fleets in 2025 than in 2018, with the average warship age increasing by 3.4 years. Of the 4 fleets that now have newer fleets, the average age decreased by 2.0 years. Most critically for the geopolitical balance of power, all 8 aging fleets belong to NATO members or NATO-aligned nations. In contrast, of the 4 younger fleets, only 1 was a NATO member. The other 3 belong to the non-Western Great Powers: China, Russia, and India.

*The 2018 figure for the PRC does not include submarines because of a lack of data.

United States

Starting with the world's largest and most powerful navy, the average age of the warships in the United States Navy now stands at 20.4 years, having increased by 1.9 years since 2018. However, that increase in age has not been uniform across the fleet. Instead, it has been disproportionately concentrated in the larger ships, with the carrier fleet now being 5.9 years older than in 2018, while the small surface combatant fleet is only 1.6 years older. Submarines and large surface combatants come in at 2.8 years older and 2.9 years older, respectively.

Given that carriers have a design life of approximately 40 or 50 years while the other warship types are expected to last around 30 years, you would expect a healthy fleet to have an average age of about half that. However, the USN is well past that and shows no signs of getting younger. A large number of the ships in the American fleet were constructed during the late Cold War and early Post Cold War periods when build rates were much higher. The Nimitz-class carriers, for example, were procured at a rate of roughly 1 every 3 years, while the Gerald R Ford-class is being laid down at a rate of around 1 every 6 years. Similarly, the early Arleigh Burke-class destroyers were commissioned at a rate of 4 or more a year, while recent procurement numbers have hovered around 1-2 a year.

This aging fleet was manageable through the 2000s and 2010s, but it is increasingly becoming a dilemma for the Navy. Many of the older ships are now reaching (or, in many cases, exceeding) their expected service lives with no replacements in sight. This forces the Navy to either keep ships in service longer to maintain numbers at the expense of ever-increasing maintenance costs or decommission ships and accept a smaller fleet to free up money for new procurement. While the small surface combatant segment is incredibly young compared to the rest of the fleet, this is composed entirely of the LCS program, which has been mismanaged and under-resourced, and contributes little to the fleet's combat power. In the years ahead, we can expect the USN to continue to age as a smaller fleet is politically unviable and money for large numbers of new ships is not forthcoming.

People's Republic of China

Turning our attention to the world's second most powerful navy, we see a radically different picture. With an average warship age of just 12.6 years, the People's Liberation Army Navy is by far the youngest of any of the 12 navies I examined. Further, it is actually getting younger as it has replaced many older ships with larger numbers of newer ships. Unfortunately, in 2018 good numbers for the age of the Chinese submarine fleet were not available, so while the chart at the top of the page says the PLAN is now 0.3 years younger, the difference is likely even larger. Removing submarines from the 2025 numbers gives an average fleet age of only 10.5 years, which is an incredible 2.4 years younger than in 2018, and Chinese submarine construction has also ramped up significantly in recent years.

*Submarine age data was not available in 2018.

Interestingly, the majority of the reduction in fleet age has come from the small surface combatant portion of the Navy. This is because in 2018 that segment still had many obsolete Type 053 series frigates, which have now been almost completely replaced by the modern Type 054 series frigates. It should be noted that the numerous Type 056 corvettes fall just under the 100-meter line and were not included in this analysis. If they were, the age of this segment of the Chinese fleet would be even lower.

China's large surface combatant fleet has slightly increased in age by 1.4 years, although with an average age of just 9.3 years, it is still on the young side. Back in 2018, I pointed out that the average age of just 3.9 years for the modern Type 052C/D destroyers implied that they likely had limited combat capability. Today, the average age of the Type 052C/D ships stands at 7.3 years, suggesting a more mature fleet. However, the large Type 055 destroyers are now where the Type 052C/D were back then, with an average age of only 3.4 years. Overall, the PLAN is developing into a robust and modern force, although its most capable ships remain new and unproven and it still has some obsolescent ships in its fleet.

Russia

With an average fleet age of 22.8 years, the Russian Navy is the oldest of the major navies. On the surface, its average fleet age is now 0.9 years younger than in 2018, but that figure is somewhat misleading as the drop comes almost entirely from the commissioning of a number of new small surface combatants. Russia's sole aircraft carrier and its large surface combatants continue aging without any new ships to replace them, and its submarine fleet also remains composed largely of Soviet-era boats, although enough new submarines have been commissioned to keep its average age steady.

The total number of new ships commissioned since 2018 can be counted on your fingers: 3 Admiral Gorshkov-class frigates, 4 Steregushchiy-class corvettes, and the lead Gremyashchiy-class corvette. The Russian submarine fleet has seen a similar level of growth, inducting 4 Yasen-M attack submarines, 5 Improved Kilo diesel-electric submarines, and the lead Lada diesel-electric submarine. These are enough new hulls to form the core of a competent regional navy, but nowhere near enough in terms of quantity or quality to replace the blue water fleet Russia inherited from the USSR. It is unlikely that Russia will be able to keep its large ships operational much longer, and many of its submarines are also getting along in years. In 2018 I predicted that the Russian Navy would shrink dramatically by 2040, and I believe that is still accurate.

Japan

The average age of the ships of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force has increased by a stunning 3.5 years since 2018, the largest jump of any of the first-rate navies. But this isn't because the Japanese have reduced their warship construction. As I mentioned in 2018, the Japanese have long maintained an extremely young fleet by retiring ships much earlier than other navies. And with an average age of 18.5 years, the JMSDF fleet is still far from old. However, Japan has recently ended this early retirement policy, decommissioning just 1 submarine and 2 obsolescent guided missile destroyers in the past 7 years. The result is a significantly larger, if slightly older, fleet.

*The Oyashio-class was not included in 2018, without them, the average carrier age in 2025 is 12 years.

In 2018, small surface combatants were by far the oldest part of the JMSDF, although this is partially an artifact of Japan's oldest Asagiri-class destroyers falling into that segment while all of the succeeding destroyer classes are large enough to be considered large surface combatants. In the years since, Japan has shifted its focus from building carriers and large surface combatants to rejuvenating its small surface combatant fleet, commissioning 6 Mogami-class frigates in the last 3 years. Submarine construction has remained steady at 1 per year, with the increased age of the Japanese submarine branch being entirely due to growing the fleet by keeping boats in service longer. We can expect the overall trend of the JMSDF getting larger and older to continue in the short term, though it is unclear how long it can continue as Japan now has no fewer than 15 surface combatants exceeding the 30-year mark compared to 0 in 2018.

India

Back in 2018, I predicted that the average age of the Indian fleet would start falling rapidly as several new classes of warships began entering service. However, the overall rate of both commissioning and decommissioning ships has been much slower than I expected and the average age of the fleet has gone down by just 0.2 years to stand at 18.7 years. On the surface, this isn't a terribly unhealthy number, but digging deeper reveals serious issues. I remarked back then on how the ships of the Indian Navy were either very young or very old, and it has only gotten worse. Today, 35% of its ships are under 10 years old and 28% are over 30 years old - in 2018, those numbers were 33% and 26%, respectively. Further, 20% of its ships are over 35 years old, and there is even one ship (the Rajput-class destroyer Rana) that is over 40 years old. In 2018, only 5% of ships were over 35 years old and none were over 40.

The only significant change has been in average carrier age, but that is somewhat misleading as it is simply the product of commissioning the new carrier Vikrant to join the aging Vikramaditya. The other segments have remained mostly consistent as older ships have been kept in service but have been joined by enough new ships to offset their increasing age. Looking at the drastic split between old and new ships in the Indian Navy, it is difficult to predict the future of the fleet. Unless construction is ramped up rapidly, India will be forced to choose between a large but partially obsolescent fleet or a significantly smaller but fairly modern fleet.

Republic of Korea

The Republic of Korea Navy is still a fairly young fleet, and it shows in the age of the ships that comprise it. Korea launched its first major expansion into blue water warships in the late 1990s with the KDX-I destroyer program, continuing with the KDX-II and KDX-III programs in the 2000s. All of those ships are still active, with the oldest having now been in commission for 27 years. With its blue water needs covered, the last 7 years have seen Korea focus on upgrading its more established coastal forces with the 8 Daegu-class corvettes and the recently commissioned lead ship of the Chungnam class. The ROKN has also retired almost all of the old Ulsan-class corvettes as the new ships came online, dramatically reducing the average age of its small surface combatant fleet.

Only 1 new large surface combatant was commissioned in that time (the KDX-III Batch II Jeongjo the Great last year), leading to an overall older blue water fleet. The submarine fleet has also aged slightly, a result of not retiring any old boats while adding 5 new diesel submarines. The carrier fleet remaining the same age is simply an artifact of the timing of the commissioning of the second Dokdo-class LHD - the data for segments with just a few ships can often be misleading. Overall, Korea has invested heavily in its navy over the past 7 years, and the current force is both larger and more capable. While the average age is slightly higher, it is still right in the ideal zone for a healthy fleet. I expect that the ROKN has roughly reached its target size and will stop growing and begin replacing its older submarines and destroyers with new construction in the coming years.

The Other Navies

With over 50 ships, the Indian and Korean navies are the bottom end of what can be considered a large navy. The remaining 6 navies have 20-35 ships, which is the point where fleets are no longer sustained by constant "drumbeat" construction but by small production runs, often with years of no new ships in between. Greece and the Republic of China are particular outliers as they have minimal domestic shipbuilding and have been reliant on purchasing anything larger than fast attack craft from other nations. This means that analyzing average fleet age is less relevant since we can expect these fleets will follow a pattern of aging before being fully replaced by new construction.

The French and British navies, for instance, have seen dramatic reductions in the average age of their submarine fleets since 2018 (from 30.2 years to 14.6 years and from 16.5 years to 8.6 years, respectively) because they are both finishing a modernization cycle intended to replace their entire force of older submarines with new boats. At the same time, both navies have seen the average age of their large surface combatants increase by exactly 7 years as neither has commissioned or decommissioned a new ship of this type since 2018. Overall, the French, British, and Italian navies are all in fairly healthy positions, with reasonable average fleet ages.

However, the same cannot be said for the Turkish, Greek, and Republic of China navies. All three of these fleets are extremely old and have aged significantly since 2018. The Greek Navy and ROCN have actually received 0 new ships since 2018, and 65% of Greek ships and 52% of Chinese ships are now over 40 years old (technically, the ROCN did receive 2 retired Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates from the United States in late 2018 after my piece was published, but these hulls are also both over 40 years old). The Turks are in a slightly different position, as they do have domestic shipbuilding and have added 1 carrier, 1 submarine, and 3 corvettes to their fleet in the past 7 years, but 32% of their fleet is still over 40 years old. I expect all three of these navies will be forced to shrink significantly in the very near future.