Nuclear-powered legacy: The final voyage of USS Nimitz
The USS "Nimitz" is an iconic aircraft carrier. It was the first in a long series of ships that bear its name and has become a symbol of the US Navy's strength and American dominance on the world's seas. After more than 50 years of service, the USS "Nimitz" embarked on its final voyage.
In March 2025, USS "Nimitz" (CVN-68) left its home port at the Kitsap Bremerton base in Washington State. After taking on board the air group Carrier Air Wing 17 and joining escort ships from Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 9, the ship moved to the western Pacific.
According to the US Navy, the mission of the aircraft carrier and its accompanying group is to "protect the security, freedom, and prosperity of the United States, its allies, and partners, and demonstrate the unwavering commitment of the US Navy to a free and open Indo-Pacific."
This is, according to the current schedule, the last operational voyage of the "Nimitz." The oldest American aircraft carrier will return from this mission in 2026. It will be replaced by the new ship USS "John F. Kennedy" (CVN 79).
The "Nimitz" will arrive in Norfolk, Virginia, in April 2026, where everything that can be reused will be removed by spring 2027. The stripped-down ship will then be sent to the HII-Newport News Shipbuilding shipyard.
The process of deactivating and dismantling the nuclear propulsion on the aircraft carrier, which is estimated to last 30 months, will then begin, preceding the dismantling and scrapping of the hull. Thus, the more than 50-year history of this symbol of the American navy will come to an end.
11 US Navy aircraft carriers
The USS Nimitz entered service in 1975. It was not the first American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier; that title belongs to the USS "Enterprise" (CVN-65), which was over a decade older and the only representative of its type. Only one unit was built, and the experience gained during the design of the Enterprise allowed for the refinement of the Nimitz's design.
This turned out to be particularly successful. Between 1975 and 2009, 10 Nimitz-class carriers entered service. They have been gradually replaced by the transitional Gerald R. Ford class since 2017. The new ships bear a close resemblance, with the most visible difference being the slightly narrower and rearward-shifted superstructure.
As the Nimitz (and previously the aircraft carrier USS "Enterprise") is retired, a new type of aircraft carrier is introduced into service to ensure that the US Navy constantly maintains 11 units of this class. Due to the need for repairs, upgrades, or training, this ensures that the Pentagon has 3-4 aircraft carriers in constant readiness, deployed worldwide.
The number of necessary carriers is a topic of debate; there have been proposals to limit the number of active ships to 10, as well as analyses suggesting it is necessary to expand the fleet of aircraft carriers to 12 units.
The process of replacing the Nimitz-class is extended over time—current schedules anticipate that the last ship of this type will be decommissioned in 2058.
A floating city
The USS "Nimitz" is a true floating city. The ship displaces over 100,000 metric tonnes and is approximately 333 metres long. It is operated by a crew of up to 6,300 people, who have access to infrastructure resembling a small town, including a movie theatre, sports facilities, its own media, and a hospital. The scale of the challenges is evident in the organization of the onboard kitchen, which serves more than 18,000 meals daily.
The size of the Nimitz is evident in the dimensions of its superstructure. While the characteristic "island" on the starboard side seems small compared to the entire ship, it is about 46 metres high. It houses command centres responsible for conducting flight operations, operating the ship, and directing the actions of the carrier strike group—a team of surface and subsurface units accompanying the aircraft carrier.
Its key asset is the air group, housed in a hangar about 200 metres long. It contains the equivalent of the air forces of a small country, 70-90 aircraft, more than half of which are combat planes.
The current air group of the USS "Nimitz," formed by Carrier Air Wing 17, consists of nine squadrons. Four are equipped with F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft, and one with EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft.
They are complemented by E-2D Advanced Hawkeye early warning aircraft, MH-60 helicopters (a naval variant of the Black Hawk), and C-2A Greyhound carrier onboard delivery aircraft.
The power of aviation and unlimited range
The strength of American aircraft carriers is not in their size or the number of planes in the hangar but their ability to conduct air operations at an intensity unattainable by aircraft carriers from other countries.
This is due to both the design of American ships, with four large elevators capable of lifting up to 30,000-kilogram aircraft to the deck, and the organization of deck operations, where different tasks are assigned different coloured uniforms.
Within 10 minutes, a Nimitz-class ship can launch up to 30 planes into the air, and the number of flights the ship can handle in a day exceeds 200. Gerald R. Ford-class carriers, equipped with electromagnetic catapults, can launch aircraft even faster.
Besides the power of its air group, an important advantage of the Nimitz-class is its propulsion. Nuclear power allows for maintaining a constant, high speed (over 55 km/h), and most importantly, provides the ship with unlimited range. This is significant when the US needs to respond in distant parts of the world—an aircraft carrier can be sent to a volatile region immediately, without the need to refuel first.
Issues with scrapping nuclear propulsion
The end of service for the first of the Nimitz-class is associated with many challenges. The scale is demonstrated by the fate of the first American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The USS "Enterprise" was decommissioned in 2012 and formally removed from the fleet in 2017.
Despite the passage of time, the ship has still not been scrapped. For years, work has been ongoing on procedures for the safe deactivation and dismantling of the nuclear propulsion. After the reactors are shut down and the fuel removed, the ship's propulsion will be secured and transported by special train to the Hanford site in Washington State, where the repository for decommissioned nuclear-powered submarine propulsions—Trench 94—is located.
The same fate awaits the USS "Nimitz," which, due to the procedures already developed and tested on the USS "Enterprise," is likely to be dismantled more quickly. The cost of scrapping a single aircraft carrier is estimated at $0.5 to $1.5 billion.
