The Navy's Last Conventionally Powered Aircraft Carriers Have Been Sold For Literal Pennies
The divestment of the former USS Kitty Hawk and USS John F. Kennedy marks the final end of a historic era for the U.S. Navy.
By Joseph Trevithick October 6, 2021
The War Zone
The U.S. Navy has finally sold off what remains of the former aircraft carriers USS Kitty Hawk and USS John F. Kennedy for scrap, letting them go for one cent each. The service decommissioned both ships more than a decade ago but had kept them in mothballs as various groups attempted to secure them to turn them into museums, and there were even some brief discussions about returning Kitty Hawk to active duty. The Navy finally struck them from the rolls for good in 2017 and began prepping them to be broken down.
News emerged just recently that International Shipbreaking Limited, a subsidiary of EMR Group situated in Brownsville, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico, had secured a deal with the Navy to take the carriers for a total of two cents. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) first announced it was actively looking for a contractor to tow away both ships and break them up last year.
Quillc via Wikimedia
The ex-Kitty Hawk seen at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in 2017.
“I’ve personally inspected her, so I know she’s in good shape for towing,” Chris Green, a senior manager at International Shipbreaking told The Brownsville Herald newspaper, referring to the former Kitty Hawk. In March, the Navy announced it had put that vessel, which it decommissioned in 2009, into dry dock at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Washington, "to remove marine growth from the hull" as part of the process of getting it ready to be scrapped. Work to get the ship ready to leave for Brownsville is expected to begin next week.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42643/the-navys-last-conventionally-powered-aircraft-carriers-have-been-sold-for-literal-pennies
