Dismantling Contract for Nuclear Aircraft Carrier USS Enterprise Awarded

The U.S. Department of Defense confirmed on Friday, May 30, that the dismantling contract for ex-USS Enterprise has been awarded. It marks the official end to the process that began several years ago after the first U.S. Navy nuclear aircraft carrier was decommissioned in 2017 and the debate began on her final fate.

Included in the listing of contracts finalized by the Department of Defense is the awarding of $536 million in a fixed-price contract to NorthStar Maritime Dismantlement Services for the dismantling, recycling, and disposal of ex-Enterprise. It is a Mobile, Alabama-based partnership between NorthStar Group Services and Modern American Recycling and Radiological Services announced in November 2024 as one of the bidders for the contract. The other competitors were in Newport News, Virginia, and Brownsville, Texas with it noted that only Brownsville had a ship-recycling specialist experienced in disposing of U.S. Navy’s conventional aircraft carriers. The decommissioned aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy arrived in Brownsville on February 2, 2025, for dismantling after being towed from Philadelphia.

Enterprise was present at some of the most important moments in modern U.S. Navy history (USN)

DoD reports that Enterprise “will be dismantled in its entirety, and all resulting materials will be properly recycled or disposed of. Specifically, hazardous materials, including low-level radioactive waste, will be packaged and safely transported for disposal at authorized licensed sites.”

The process of disposing of the carrier began in 2022 with the Navy releasing a report that explored the options including continuing to hold the vessel in lay-up or dismantling. The following year, the Navy confirmed that it preferred to dismantle the carrier using a commercial facility so as not to lose precious space and capacity in its own shipyards.

Enterprise's nuclear reactors have been defueled, but there are still "legacy radiological and hazardous wastes" on board the Navy concluded in its analysis. During the dismantling process, the hazardous components will be separated and properly contained for shipment to a storage site. North Star will be responsible for dismantling the other sections of the ship. DoD reports the work will be performed in Mobile, Alabama, and is expected to be completed by November 2029.

It will be an economic boost for Mobile. The city is already reporting a mini-surge in tourism after the liner ss United States arrived at the MARS facility. The liner is being prepared in Mobile for a planned reefing. The Mobile Chamber of Commerce last year said it opposed dismantling the carrier in the area fearing the potential of a mishap or contamination.

USS Enterprise with nuclear-powered escorts USS Long Beach and Bainbridge, the world's first all-nuclear task force (June 1964, USN)

Known by her nickname “Big E,” the carrier was a symbol of the United States' naval power. She remains the longest naval vessel ever constructed, though she is outranked by the Nimitz and Ford-class carriers when measured by displacement. She has a length of 1,123 feet (342 meters) at the flight deck and has a displacement of approximately 94,000 tons. Enterprise had an acknowledged top speed of over 30 knots, although it was rumored she could operate at much faster speeds.

Big E was present at some of the most important moments in modern U.S. Navy history, including the blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis; aerial combat and bombardment missions during the Vietnam War; the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy during the fall of Saigon; the bombing of Al Qaeda and Taliban installations after 9/11; and duty in the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. She also participated in the early space program tracking John Glenn’s orbit of the Earth in the Friendship 7 capsule.

She was commissioned in 1961 and was to have been part of a class of nuclear carriers. Instead, the Navy learned from her and went on to build the Nimitz class, which remains the hallmark of the nuclear navy. Enterprise served with distinction through the 1960s before a fire in 1969 and an overhaul in the early 1970s. She received life extension refits in the 1990s and in 2008 which lasted till 2010. She began her final deployment in March 2012 and was officially listed as deactivated in December 2012.

Deactivated in 2012, Enterprise is seen here in her 2013 move into lay-up in Newport News, Virginia (USN)

Settling the disposal of the ship took on greater importance as the Navy now looks to the deactivation of the first Nimitz class carriers in the coming years. Enterprise is to provide a model for the Navy as it moves forward into the Ford class. The legacy of Big E will be celebrated as about 14 tons of steel salvaged from CVN-65 will be incorporated into CNV-80, the third Ford-class carrier which fittingly will be the next USS Enterprise.