The 50 year old nuclear-powered aircraft carrier returned to Bremerton, Washington on Dec. 16, 2025 after its final scheduled deployment.
USS Nimitz (CVN-68), the oldest commissioned aircraft carrier in the world, is scheduled to be officially decommissioned in May 2026 – 51 years after entering service. After post-deployment maintenance at Naval Base Kitsap, Bremerton, the Nimitz will make a final voyage to Norfolk, Virginia, either via the Strait of Magellan or around Cape Horn at the very southern tip of South America.
FINAL HOMECOMING | There are few corners of the world the USS Nimitz has not visited since it was commissioned in 1975.
Half a century later, the Navy’s oldest aircraft carrier arrived home at Naval Base Kitsap this week for the final time ahead of its scheduled decommissioning… pic.twitter.com/Zsf84GFqwv
— Stars and Stripes (@starsandstripes) December 16, 2025
Following an official decommissioning ceremony the ship will be stripped of remaining useful parts, equipment, and stores in a process known as the Ship Terminal Off-load Program, or STOP. After around 12 months, Nimitz will be handed over to Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) at Newport News to begin the long process of defueling and removing the two Westinghouse A4W nuclear reactors. This process will be unique – the only nuclear powered aircraft carrier to previously be decommissioned being the one-of-a-kind USS Enterprise (CVN-65), which instead featured eight A2W reactors.
HII was initially awarded the contract to carry out these works on Mar. 13, 2025 without any competition, the Newport News operation – which has built every one of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear aircraft carriers – being the sole contractor considered to have the required experience to complete the project. The March 2025 contract, worth $22.3 million, set out the potential for the total value of the works involved to eventually reach $358 million if all options were exercised.
On Dec. 23, 2025, HII was awarded a modification to the initial contract worth $33.4 million. Set to run until March 2026, this money will be used to finalize advanced planning ahead of the decommissioning process and procure long-lead materials. Follow-on contract modifications are expected to sustain work through October 2027.
Final Deployment
The Nimitz sailed for its last scheduled deployment on Mar. 21, 2025, leading Carrier Strike Group 11 (CSG 11) with Destroyer Squadron 9 (DESRON 9) and carrying Carrier Air Wing 17 (CVW-17). Heading first to the Indo-Pacific, the Nimitz made port calls in Guam and Malaysia in between exercises with regional allies. Tragedy struck the ship in Guam when crew member Gabriel D. Holt was reported missing after having last been seen on Apr. 18. A search spanning 11,000 square miles failed to locate the sailor, and the search was called off on Apr. 24.
Heightening tensions between Israel and Iran saw CSG 11 ordered towards the Middle East earlier than planned, bypassing a scheduled visit to Vietnam. The strike group relieved the USS Carl Vinson’s strike group and arrived station in the Arabian Sea on the night of Operation Midnight Hammer.
Three months later, the Nimitz CSG headed back through the Strait of Malacca for continued operations with the U.S. Seventh Fleet. It was there, in the South China Sea, on Oct. 26 that a F/A-18F Super Hornet and MH-60R Seahawk operating from the carrier both crashed into the sea within 30 minutes of each other. All personnel were safely rescued, and the aircraft themselves were recovered from the seabed in early December.
On the way back to the U.S., the Nimitz called into Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for a final port call ahead of reaching the west coast. Sailors lined the edge of the flight deck wearing dress white uniforms and saluted the wreck of the USS Arizona, which was sunk by Japanese aircraft on Dec. 7, 1941 and serves as a memorial to the attack, as the ship passed by. Notably, in 1980, the Nimitz starred as the main setting for The Final Countdown, which saw the carrier – having set sail from Pearl Harbor – transported by a mysterious electrical storm back to Dec. 6, 1941. The ship’s captain, played by Kirk Douglas, deliberates with his senior officers and a civilian systems analyst, played by Martin Sheen, about whether to intervene in the upcoming Japanese attack and alter the historical timeline. Made with the full cooperation of the U.S. Department of Defense, filming was carried out on board the Nimitz and used aircraft from the ship’s air wing as well as crew members as extras.
After Hawaii, the Nimitz visited San Diego, California, which it previously called home for 11 years. The two day visit, from Dec. 7 to Dec. 9, allowed a final farewell between the city and the ship, while the air wing – most of which is based at Naval Air Stations Lemoore and North Island, both in California, was able to disembark and head home ahead of the port call.
USS Nimitz (CVN 68) Nimitz-class aircraft carrier leaving San Diego – December 9, 2025 SRC: YT- SanDiegoWebcam pic.twitter.com/OMniMd3XqS
— WarshipCam (@WarshipCam) December 9, 2025
A week later, on Dec. 16, the Nimitz sailed into Naval Base Kitsap for the last time after half a century of operations. The Nimitz class that it gave its name to will live on for decades to come, with the last ship in the class – USS George H. W. Bush (CVN 77) – expected to remain in service until 2059. Nimitz’s replacement is due to be the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79), the second carrier in the Gerald R. Ford class, which is scheduled for commissioning in March 2027.
