Navy
Oldest aircraft carrier USS Nimitz departs for what is likely to be its final deployment
Stars and Stripes
March 23, 2025
Sailors man the rails on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) in the Puget Sound after getting underway for a regularly scheduled Indo-Pacific deployment, March 21, 2025. (Japeth Carter/U.S. Navy)
The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group departed Naval Base Kitsap Bremerton in Washington for a scheduled deployment to the Western Pacific on Friday.
This will likely be the last deployment for the USS Nimitz — the oldest active U.S. aircraft carrier — before its planned decommissioning in 2026 after 50 years of service.
The strike group consists of the Nimitz (CVN 68), Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17 and Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 9. The group’s deployment will focus on protecting security, freedom and prosperity for the United States and its allies and partners and demonstrating the U.S. Navy’s unwavering commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, the Navy said.
The USS Nimitz, commissioned in 1975 just days after the fall of Saigon ended the Vietnam War, is slated to move from Naval Base Kitsap to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia by April 2026. The USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) will replace the Nimitz at Bremerton once it is commissioned this year.
The Nimitz will be in Norfolk until the spring of 2027 to offload equipment and materials that can be repurposed. The ship will then move to HII-Newport News Shipbuilding to begin the estimated 30-month process of removing nuclear fuel and deactivating the carrier.
Sailors man the rails on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) in the Puget Sound after getting underway for a regularly scheduled Indo-Pacific deployment, March 21, 2025. (Japeth Carter/U.S. Navy)