{"id":86914,"date":"2026-11-03T00:18:45","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T05:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=86914"},"modified":"2026-11-03T00:18:51","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T05:18:51","slug":"uss-enterprise-cvn-65-leaves-newport-news-for-demolition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/11\/03\/uss-enterprise-cvn-65-leaves-newport-news-for-demolition\/","title":{"rendered":"USS Enterprise CVN 65 Leaves Newport News for Demolition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Big E Is Finally Leaving the Yard That Built Her, This morning, the hulk of the former USS Enterprise (CVN-65), the world’s first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, was towed away from her pier at Newport News Shipbuilding for the last time. Her destination is Mobile, Alabama, where she will be taken apart.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Newport News is where Enterprise was born. Her keel was laid there in February 1958, and she was christened at the same yard in September 1960. More than six decades later, the shipyard that built her is now watching her leave for the final time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She served for 51 years, from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the War on Terror, and was the first carrier to respond after the September 11 attacks. Her final deployment ended on November 4, 2012, just two days short of 14 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking her apart is anything but simple. Enterprise is the only aircraft carrier ever built with eight nuclear reactors. Every Nimitz- and Ford-class carrier since has just two. That is one of the main reasons preserving her as a museum ship was never considered practical. Her reactors would have to be removed first, making the project far too expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Navy has already spent more than a billion dollars on her inactivation and storage, and has now awarded a contract worth about $418 million to dismantle her. The work is expected to continue until around 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a bigger story here, too. The Navy has described the project as a case study for the ten Nimitz-class carriers that will eventually follow her into retirement. What is learned in Mobile will help shape how those ships are dismantled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her name will live on in USS Enterprise (CVN-80), and the Navy has said that some of the original ship’s steel is intended to be incorporated into the new carrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a quiet ending for a ship that spent half a century making history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Big E Is Finally Leaving the Yard That Built Her, This morning, the hulk of the former USS Enterprise (CVN-65), the world’s first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, was towed… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzExXC84ODYzNzY0ODFfMTIyMTc2OTE2MjEwNzA0OTE3XzE5NzM4NjcwNzUxMDIwMjA3NTlfbi53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiVVNTIEVudGVycHJpc2UgQ1ZOIDY1IExlYXZlcyBOZXdwb3J0IE5ld3MgZm9yIERlbW9saXRpb24iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.TjWSpFm-P4hp_-ibIQLRJAqwrWJUJtNeiJB4GlwIuhMMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzExXC84ODYzNzY0ODFfMTIyMTc2OTE2MjEwNzA0OTE3XzE5NzM4NjcwNzUxMDIwMjA3NTlfbi53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiVVNTIEVudGVycHJpc2UgQ1ZOIDY1IExlYXZlcyBOZXdwb3J0IE5ld3MgZm9yIERlbW9saXRpb24iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.TjWSpFm-P4hp_-ibIQLRJAqwrWJUJtNeiJB4GlwIuhMMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[18928,18927,18935,18929,18930,18931,18933,18926],"class_list":["post-86914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-aircraft-carrier","tag-cvn-65","tag-military-history","tag-newport-news-shipbuilding","tag-nuclear-powered","tag-ship-demolition","tag-us-navy","tag-uss-enterprise"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86916,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86914\/revisions\/86916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}