WASHINGTON — Amid the pressure of prolonged deployments, the Navy informed Breaking Defense it has formally determined to maintain its oldest lively plane service within the water just a little longer, prolonging the service lifetime of the USS Nimitz to March 2027.
A service official revealed the change late Friday, pushing again earlier plans to mothball the ship this May.
Extending the Nimitz’s service life implies that the Navy may preserve its fleet of 11 carriers. The service is awaiting its latest plane service, the second Ford-class John F. Kennedy, which is presently slated for supply in March 2027.
The Nimitz departed Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington on March 7 to go to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia as a part of a scheduled homeport shift for the the rest of its service life. It will then bear its inactivation and defueling of the reactor at HII in Newport News.
UNCHARTED WATERS: Navy navigating first-ever dismantling of nuclear-powered carrier
The service returned to Bremerton in December, after concluding a nine-month deployment to US Central Command and US Indo-Pacific Command.
While underway, the service strike group additionally supported US Africa Command by collaborating in strikes concentrating on the Islamic State (ISIS) in Somalia. Altogether, the Nimitz’s crew accomplished 8,500 sorties totaling 17,000 flight hours.
In a historic echo, among the many first of the Nimitz’s duties [PDF] when it was a younger ship was to assist Operation Eagle Claw, the in the end doomed effort to rescue American hostages held in Iran in 1980. The Trump administration has cited the hostage-taking as part of its justification for present operations towards the Iranian regime.
