I haven’t updated this site since the last post, in May 2011. Over the last dozen+ years, there’s been a lot of developments in ‘navy ships named Enterprise’. Searching today (October 23, 2023) for “USS Enterprise (CVN-65)”, it seems the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier is not long for this world. Enterprise (CVN-65) was retired in 2012 and decommissioned in 2017. The third Ford-class carrier, CVN-80, was named Enterprise in 2019.
Enterprise (CVN-65) was returned to Newport News Shipyard in 2015. This video was posted by Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) on May 5, 2015:
In 2017 Enterprise (CVN-65) was decommissioned, and a Carrier Disposal Environmental Impact Statement was finished by September 2023.
A news channel had this report in February 2017:
[…] Affectionately called the “Big E,” the ship retired from service in 2012. The Navy has spent the past few years defueling its reactors. The ship will eventually be taken apart and its metal recycled.
– Navy decommissions ‘legendary’ USS Enterprise
The same channel had a followup report in September 2023:
Years after it was decommissioned, the U.S. Navy has announced the final fate of the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
The former USS Enterprise (CVN 65) will be dismantled and disposed of using commercial industry at one of three possible locations: Newport News, Virginia; Brownsville, Texas; or Mobile, Alabama.
The Navy said the commercial companies would be responsible for dismantling the ship’s defueled reactor plants and disposing of the reactor plant components through several hundred shipments to authorized waste disposal sites.
–Navy announces plan to dismantle ex-Enterprise aircraft carrier