Ex-US Navy aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy heads to Texas for scrapping

The decommissioned US Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy commenced its final transit on Thursday, January 16, when it departed from the Naval Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility (NISMF) in Philadelphia to Brownsville, Texas for dismantling.

The navy, via the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), had sold Kennedy and another decommissioned aircraft carrier, ex-USS Kitty Hawk, to a shipbreaking company in Brownsville in late 2021. These ships were the last two conventionally powered aircraft carriers to be operated by the US Navy.

Following their retirement in the early 2000s, the two carriers were placed in lay-up, with ex-Kennedy at the NISMF in Philadelphia and ex-Kitty Hawk at the NISMF in Bremerton, Washington.

Ex-Kitty Hawk was towed to Brownsville in May 2022. As of 2024, the carrier was almost completely dismantled.

Commissioned on September 7, 1968, Kennedy was the first US Navy ship to be named after the late President John F. Kennedy. The carrier conducted multiple tours in the Mediterranean, Tyrrhenian, Ionian, Ligurian, Aegean and Adriatic seas, during a period of escalating tension in the Middle East and North Africa, often while under the surveillance of Soviet ships.

In the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks, Kennedy and her battle group established air security along the mid-Atlantic seaboard in support of Operation Noble Eagle. In February 2002, the ship deployed in support of Operations Anaconda and Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, followed by support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in July of 2004.

After more than 39 years of conducting US Navy missions worldwide, Kennedy was removed from service on August 1, 2007.