The US maintains the world’s largest fleet of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the cornerstone of its global power projection. Its first such vessel—the USS Enterprise—is now on its last transit to a facility where it will be dismantled.
USS Enterprise CVN-65 was reportedly towed from a pier at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia on November 2, 2026. The ship is being taken to Mobile, Alabama, for dismantling
“Ex-Enterprise began its final transit this morning, departing Newport News Shipbuilding for Mobile, Alabama, where the ship will be dismantled,” said PAE Maritime, the single accountable organization for delivering surface ships for the US Navy.
“Enterprise will always be remembered for her proud legacy of service, a legacy made possible by the Sailors and support personnel whose dedication kept her mission-ready,” Kevin Cormier, Deputy Portfolio Acquisition Executive Maritime for Aircraft Carriers, was quoted as saying in an official statement published by the US Navy. “All who served aboard and sustained this historic ship should take pride in the vital role they played in supporting the fleet. Their dedication ensured that Enterprise remained a lasting example of naval excellence. Fair winds and following seas,” he added.
The world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was inactivated in December 2012. The Navy completed defueling of its eight reactor plants in 2017, and the ship was formally decommissioned on February 3, 2017, during a ceremony in its hangar bay. The ship was officially decommissioned in February 2017 after more than 55 years of service in the US Navy.
Notably, the vessel’s final trip came about 17 months after NorthStar Maritime Dismantlement Services was awarded a $536 million dismantling contract.
NorthStar, an environmental disposal firm, and HII got into a legal dispute over who would handle the final disposal. However, HII dropped a legal appeal to the Navy’s $418 million disposal award to NorthStar last month, clearing the way for its official send-off.
NorthStar, partnered with Modern American Recycling and Radiological Services in Mobile, will dismantle, recycle, and dispose of the ship. The government has already removed some components and will take responsibility for the radioactive ones, while the partnership will handle the rest. Last year, the Pentagon said it expected to finish the dismantling by November 2029.
The Navy has indicated that the process will serve as a model and learning opportunity for the eventual inactivation and disposal of the first Nimitz-class carriers, the USS Nimitz.
America’s First Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carrier
USS Enterprise—nicknamed “Big E”—was the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the eighth US Navy ship to bear that name. Commissioned on 25 November 1961, it remains one of the most iconic warships in naval history.
Measuring about 1,123 feet, USS Enterprise was the longest naval vessel ever constructed at the time of its commissioning. It displaced roughly 93,000 to 95,000 tons fully loaded, with a waterline beam of about 133 feet and a flight deck about 252–257 feet wide.
The ship’s propulsion system, comprising eight Westinghouse A2W nuclear reactors, drove four geared steam turbines that produced around 280,000 shaft horsepower, turning four propellers and enabling speeds well above 30 knots. The massive ship carried a crew of 4,600 to 5,800 and could embark 60 to 85 or more aircraft.
USS Enterprise began flight operations in January 1962 and quickly proved its value. In February of that year, the ship served as a tracking and measuring station for John Glenn’s Friendship 7 orbital flight. However, its first real and significant deployment came during the Cuban Missile Crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1962, a moment in Cold War history when the world came to the brink of a nuclear war.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, the USS Enterprise played a key role in the US naval response to the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. On 19 October, the ship sortied from Norfolk with only part of Carrier Air Group 6 embarked, whereas the remaining aircraft flew aboard as she raced south.
Enterprise joined other US naval forces enforcing President John F. Kennedy’s “quarantine,” or a naval blockade of Cuba, which took effect on 24 October. It operated primarily in the southern approaches to the island, often in coordination with the carrier USS Independence, forming part of the strike and support forces ready to defend Guantánamo Bay or conduct air strikes if ordered. At the height of the crisis, reports said its flight deck held more than 100 aircraft, including fighters and attack planes.
The ship had intelligence photos of the missile sites in Cuba. According to publicly available information, Commander Kent L. Lee had devised plans to attack them with non-nuclear “iron bombs” during the Vietnam War. During practice runs, the air group loaded bombs and dropped them. Lee recalled that the strategy for Cuba was to enter covertly, strike nuclear missile and anti-aircraft targets, and then retreat. The pilots were on daily standby.
Enterprise maintained a high operational tempo throughout the crisis, as the ship’s nuclear propulsion allowed sustained high-speed operations without frequent refueling.
Much to the world’s relief, on 28 October, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the missiles, averting a major nuclear threat.
A few years later, the USS Enterprise made multiple combat deployments to the Western Pacific during the Vietnam War, becoming the first nuclear-powered warship to engage in combat. It reportedly completed six major combat deployments related to the war between 1965 and 1973, along with a final deployment that included the 1975 evacuation of Saigon.
In 1971, the USS Enterprise was nearly attacked by India as it became involved in a covert US operation during the concluding phases of the Indo-Pakistan war.
As Indian forces advanced decisively towards East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), the US Seventh Fleet was ordered to dispatch Task Force 74 to the Bay of Bengal on December 8, 1971, perhaps to assist its US Pakistan.
The USS Enterprise departed from the Gulf of Tonkin, where it had been deployed to participate in the ongoing Vietnam War, and arrived at the Bay of Bengal on December 15. Although the captain had no orders, attacking Indian military outposts would have been one option on the deck, as K.N. Pandita, former director of the Center of Central Asian Studies at Kashmir University, surmised in a previous EurAsian Times article.
India saw the deployment as an attempt to facilitate a Pakistani breakout or resupply and as a direct danger to its naval operations in the vicinity of places like Chittagong. Therefore, to counter this imminent threat, the Indian Air Force (IAF) allegedly devised a risky backup plan, including a kamikaze-style (one-way suicide) attack on the USS Enterprise, as you can read more about here.
However, the mission was aborted at the eleventh hour as the Soviet Union, an Indian ally, came to India’s aid.
The Soviet Union sent a destroyer, a second mine patrol ship, and a submarine to the Indian Ocean to prevent the US warships from entering the Bay of Bengal.
The Soviets announced on December 13 that they would send a second anti-carrier task group to intercept the 7th fleet, two days before the USS Enterprise was scheduled to arrive. When the US warships arrived in the Bay of Bengal on December 15, about 20 Soviet warships were in the Indian Ocean, ready to prevent any misadventures by the US carrier group.
In the late 1990s, the USS Enterprise served as a primary launch platform for US Navy air and missile strikes against Iraqi military targets during Operation Desert Fox in December 1998. On the night of 16–17 December that year, the Enterprise Battle Group initiated the strikes. The ships in the group, including cruisers, destroyers, and a submarine, launched more than 200 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles.
The USS Enterprise played a sustained and significant role in the Global War on Terror from the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
When the US was rocked by the horrifying 9/11 attacks in 2001, USS Enterprise was completing a six-month deployment and had just left the Arabian Gulf, heading south toward Cape Town, South Africa, for an exercise. Upon learning of the attacks, the carrier immediately reversed course without waiting for formal orders and steamed north at high speed to a position roughly 100 miles south of Pakistan in the North Arabian Sea.
It became one of the first US carriers on station and, beginning on the night of 7 October 2001, launched the opening waves of combat aircraft for Operation Enduring Freedom.
Over the following weeks, its air wing flew intensive combat operations and averaged 60–80 sorties daily during the initial phase.
Enterprise continued supporting the Global War on Terror on later deployments. It later conducted multiple combat deployments supporting Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, along with related maritime security and no-fly-zone missions.
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