The USS Enterprise Is Being Shut Down

It's the beginning of the end for the USS Enterprise. After 50 years of service, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is going dark at the same shipyard where it was first built.

 

Around 600 sailors and 1,200 employees at the Newport News shipyard in Virginia have been tasked with completing the "inactivation."

 

The Navy has never permanently shut down a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. A big part of the job — removing spent fuel from the ship's nuclear reactors — is nothing new. Newport News has accomplished several mid-life carrier overhauls, which involve defueling followed by refueling. That's part of getting the ship back in the fight, as the Navy likes to put it.

 

But the Enterprise has no more fighting days left, and shipyard workers now face a sad reality: The ship is literally going dark before their eyes.

 

"We've got probably half the ship or more that is uninhabited," said Dave Long, program director. "It's dark — no electricity, no ventilation. And we've actually sectioned it off with certain barriers and locks, very safely, so people can't get lost."

 

Long tells the story about a small group of Newport News workers who would hop on a plane to make repair calls to a different part of the globe. That's the kind of loyalty the Enterprise inspires, he said.

 

Today, some employees simply want to walk onto the ship one last time. Long is already fielding requests from employees to "ride" the ship for a few hundred yards when, in January, it will transfer from Pier 2 to Dry Dock 11.

 

The Enterprise will remain in Newport News until 2016. Eventually, it will be towed from Hampton Roads around the tip of South America to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Wash.

 

There it will be dismantled and recycled.

 

"If you didn't serve on Enterprise, you really haven't lived," said Rear Admiral Thomas More.

 

Trivia Note: The USS Enterprise was on deployment during the filming of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, so the USS Ranger served as the stand-in "nuclear wessel

HII Awarded $745 Million Contract to Inactivate USS Enterprise (CVN 65)

Huntington Ingalls Industries announced today that the company has received a $745 million cost-plus-incentive fee contract for the inactivation of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65). The work will be done at HII's Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division.

 

The ship was towed from Naval Station Norfolk to NNS on June 20 under the existing planning contract. NNS will defuel the ship's eight reactors and prepare Enterprise for its eventual transit to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility. The work is scheduled to complete in August 2016. More than 1,000 employees will support her inactivation.

"Although Newport News Shipbuilding has defueled and refueled many ships, including Enterprise, this is the first inactivation of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier," said Chris Miner, NNS' vice president, in-service aircraft carrier programs. "Our shipbuilders know Enterprise well and have enjoyed working on her over her decades of service. We are extremely proud of her great legacy, so it is with heavy hearts that we will work to retire this one-of-a-kind ship."

Built by Newport News shipbuilders and launched in September 1960, Enterprise served a record 51 consecutive years. The ship was the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the only one in her class. Enterprise aided in the Cuban Missile Crisis and operations Enduring Freedom and New Dawn, as well as naval maritime security operations.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and provides after-market services for military ships around the globe. For more than a century, HII has built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder at its Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls Shipbuilding divisions. Employing about 37,000 in Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and California, HII also provides a wide variety of products and services to the commercial energy industry and other government customers, including the Department of Energy.

                  

Statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in these statements. Factors that may cause such differences include: changes in government and customer priorities and requirements (including government budgetary constraints, shifts in defense spending, and changes in customer short-range and long-range plans); our ability to obtain new contracts, estimate our costs and perform effectively; risks related to our spin-off from Northrop Grumman (including our increased costs and leverage); our ability to realize the expected benefits from consolidation of our Gulf Coast facilities; natural disasters; adverse economic conditions in the United States and globally; and other risk factors discussed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. There may be other risks and uncertainties that we are unable to predict at this time or that we currently do not expect to have a material adverse effect on our business, and we undertake no obligations to update any forward-looking statements.

Enterprise inactivation ceremony Dec. 1 in Norfolk

After 51 years of service, the aircraft carrier Enterprise will inactivate on Dec. 1, in a ceremony at Norfolk Naval Station.

The inactivation ceremony will be the last official public event for the ship, which has had more than 100,000 sailors serve aboard it, a Navy news release said. Thousands of those sailors are expected to attend the event.

The Enterprise was commissioned on Nov. 25, 1961, and was the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. It is a veteran of 25 deployments to the Mediterranean Sea, Pacific Ocean and Middle East.

The Enterprise has served in conflicts ranging from the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 to the Vietnam and Gulf wars.

Shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, the carrier launched the first strikes in direct support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the release said.

All Enterprise veterans, their families and friends, and shipyard workers can register to attend the inactivation week events and the ceremony by visiting the ship's website - USS Enterprise

Pakistani Media Report - US violates int’l laws; moves USS Enterprise into Pakistani waters

Karachi—After failing to strike a deal on Nato supply with Pakistan, violating international laws the US has moved its USS Enterprise, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, into Pakistani territorial waters near Gawadar, media quoting sources said on Thursday.

“After the deployment of the aircraft in Pakistani sea the country’s security agencies are now investigating into the matter. The movement apparently shows the increasing interest of the US in Balochistan province of Pakistan,” sources said.

“The US has moved its biggest aircraft carrier 65 to 70 nautical miles away from Gawadar in the second week of June,” a well informed source told news-based website. The USS Enterprise, which holds a crew of over 4,000, had taken part in several wars.

SW Note: - The territorial waters of Pakistan extend 12 nautical miles. The carrier is no way near the Pakistani waters on violated any international laws. However, UN Convention on Law of the Sea extended the territorial sea to 12 nautical miles. States have control of economic development out to 200 miles, but that is not the same.