Farewell to the fleet: USS John F. Kennedy's final journey
On Thursday, January 16, the American Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) began its final journey. The vessel, measuring 321 metres in length and weighing 88,000 tonnes, is heading to the Shipbreaking Limited facility in Brownsville, Texas, which purchased it for just a penny. Here, it will be cut into pieces and scrapped.
This American aircraft carrier, of the modified Kitty Hawk type, is the first unit in the United States Navy named in honour of former President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who lost his life during the assassination on 22 November, 1963. Less than a year after this event, the keel for the future USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) was laid at the Newport News Shipbuilding yard. The aircraft carrier was launched in May 1967, and its sponsors were Kennedy's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and his daughter, Caroline Kennedy.
USS John F. Kennedy goes "to the razors"
The aircraft carrier served America for nearly 40 years. During this time, it was involved in numerous United States missions. The USS John F. Kennedy supported, among others, the U.S. response to the terrorist attack by Hezbollah on the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in October 1983, which killed 241 American soldiers. It was also involved in operations during the First Gulf War in 1991. Additionally, it supported air patrols after the terrorist attacks of 11 September, 2001.
Interestingly, USS John F. Kennedy was the last conventionally powered aircraft carrier built for the U.S. Navy. Its propulsion system consisted of four steam turbines powered by eight Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Later-built aircraft carriers were equipped with nuclear propulsion. The ship belonged to the Kitty Hawk class of aircraft carriers, which were an enlarged and modernised version of the Forrestal type carriers. It had a length of 321 metres, a width of 77 metres, a draft of 11 metres, and its displacement was as much as 88,000 tonnes. The USS John F. Kennedy could carry over 80 aircraft on its deck, and its crew numbered over 5,000 people.
The USS John F. Kennedy embarked on its last voyage in 2004, and three years later, on 23 March, it was officially decommissioned. The ship was anchored at the NAVSEA Inactive Ships On-site Maintenance facility in Philadelphia, and initially, there were considerations to donate it as a gift to the museum located there. Ultimately, this idea was not realised, and in 2017 the decision was made to send it for dismantling.
In 2021, the aircraft carriers USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) and USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) were sold for a symbolic penny to the Shipbreaking Limited facility in Brownsville, Texas, for scrapping. The high costs and challenges associated with the maintenance of the ships undermined plans for their preservation and maintenance, even as museum objects.
However, it's worth noting that scrapping all aircraft carriers is not the easiest task. This particularly applies to units with nuclear propulsion. It is often not only more expensive but also more dangerous than for ships with conventional propulsion. The War Zone service cites the dismantling of USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy, as an example. The cost of its scrapping could be as much as 1.55 billion dollars.
