Decommissioning of USS Nimitz Delayed Until 2027
The U.S. Navy has decided to defer the scheduled decommissioning of its oldest aircraft carrier, USS Nimitz (CVN 68), until 2027. The new timeline, which was confirmed to the industry trade Breaking Defense, aligns with the delayed commissioning of the second Ford class carrier, John F. Kennedy, which is currently due to be commissioned in March 2027, and meets the congressional requirement that the U.S. Navy maintain 11 carriers in its fleet.
USS Nimitz had made her final departure from Naval Base Kitsap in Washington State, bringing to a close her long association with her long-term homeport. In fact, the U.S. Navy pointed out that she was known after five decades of service as the “Pacific Northwest’s Carrier.” She departed Washington on March 7 and made a stop last week in San Diego. She is going around South America to take up her final assignment at Naval Station Norfolk.
Commissioned in May 1975, the 100,000-ton displacement Nimitz was the first of the new generation of supercarriers influenced by USS Enterprise. She underwent her mid-service overhaul and refueling between 1998 and 2001.
Her final deployment ended in December 2025 in Washington after nine months underway, which saw her move between the 3rd, 5th, and 7th fleets. The Navy reports Nimitz completed more than 8,500 sorties and 17,000 flight hours on this deployment. It included 50 replenishment-at-sea operations, and she sailed over 82,000 nautical miles.
Underway in the Gulf of Oman in 2013 (USN)
The previously released plan called for her to undertake some final exercises at Norfolk and then begin the decommissioning process. However, the Navy announced on Friday that it exercised a contract with Huntington Ingalls, Newport News, Virginia, valued at $95.7 million for advance planning and long-lead-time material procurement to prepare and make ready for the accomplishment of the inactivation and defueling of USS Nimitz. It said the work, however, was now not scheduled to be completed until March 2027.
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No details were announced on how the carrier would spend the additional months of her career. However, it has been highlighted that the USS Gerald R. Ford is on an extended deployment that is likely to set a modern record for the number of days, and USS Abraham Lincoln has already been underway for more than five months in the Middle East, leading the efforts now against Iran. It was reported at the beginning of February that John F. Kennedy completed builder's trials.
Nimitz was expected to stand down after 50 years and follow the route set by Enterprise. The Navy studied the possible options for the disposal of the supercarriers before selecting the dismantling set to get underway for Enterprise.