The US Navy has extended the service life of its oldest aircraft carrier, USS Nimitz (CVN-68), pushing the warship’s scheduled decommissioning from May 2026 to March 2027.
The 10-month extension means that the Nimitz would be inactivated around the same time as the expected delivery of the service’s latest aircraft carrier, the second Ford-class John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), in March next year.
This arrangement ensures that the navy maintains a minimum of 11 operational aircraft carriers, in accordance with a 2011 law, amid delays in the John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier program.
An unnamed US Navy official relayed the development to Breaking Defense, with the schedule changes coming amid the CVN-68’s supposed final voyage in early March from Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington, to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.
Before its return to Bremerton in December 2025, the CVN-68 completed its last full deployment to US Central Command and US Indo-Pacific Command.
USS Nimitz
Commissioned in May 1975, the USS Nimitz is also known as the “Pacific Northwest’s Carrier” and was named after Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, who served as the commander of the Pacific Fleet during World War II.
The aircraft carrier is powered by two Westinghouse A4W nuclear reactors, enabling it to achieve speeds of 30 knots (55.5 kilometers/34.5 miles per hour) and travel over 12,000 nautical miles (22,224 kilometers/13,809 miles) without needing to refuel.
Nimitz played a role in several US military missions, including Operation Desert Storm against Iraq from 1990 to 1991 and Operation Enduring Freedom against the Taliban regime and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan following the attacks on September 11, 2001.
It was also involved in a failed mission to rescue American hostages from Iran under Operation Eagle Claw in 1980, a piece of history that the administration of US President Donald Trump included in its list of “The Iranian Regime’s Decades of Terrorism Against American Citizens,” published on March 2, after the US and Israel launched attacks against Iran on February 28.
