Image source: topwar.ru
The world's first aircraft carrier with a nuclear installation, the enterprise was launched in 1960, participated in the blockade of Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam and Iraq wars. Last voyage of the aircraft carrier made in 2012 and its disposal was planned until 2015, but then the date was repeatedly postponed. In that year, Newport News Shipbuilding has won a contract worth $ 11 million to the storage vessel until September 2024. According to the American newspaper Kitsap Sun, the contract for the disposal of the ship is likely to be given a private company.
Earlier it was planned that the disassembly of the ship for scrap metal will be produced at the Navy yard, the U.S. Navy Puget Sound (PSNS), located in Bremerton, Washington. However, as stated by the representative of the Navy, currently the shipyard is "too busy existing fleet to pass on the scrap former aircraft carrier "enterprise"". It is planned that the "big e" (the informal name of the ship) will be towed away to a private landfill somewhere in the southern United States, where he will wait for dismantling.
— said in an official statement, the US Navy for this reason.
The publication reports that this decision is due to the high workload of the public shipyards for maintenance of the ships and submarines of the Navy, who are too busy preparing for the global confrontation between the Chinese Navy and the fight against international terrorism. Besides, writes Kitsap Sun, the Navy is experiencing an acute shortage of qualified personnel.
The Puget Sound is the largest of the four public shipyards of the Navy, which employs more than 15,000 people. Other shipyards are located in pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Norfolk and Kittery. Besides, currently, PSNS shipyard launched a large-scale modernization, which includes the construction of a state of the art dry dock cost more than $ 1 billion.
The leadership of the shipyard considers this a reasonable decision, but expressed disappointment, as it was planned that the novice employees can work on the dismantling of old ships before starting to work with existing ships.
The complexity of the disposal of the enterprise is not only that it is the world's largest warship and its length is 342,3 meters. On the carrier's eight nuclear power plants, while in modern nuclear US Navy ships used in the two nuclear units. And although the long-mothballed reactors, they need to be properly disposed of. Currently in the US there are no private shipyards with experience in recycling of ships with nuclear installations. While the Puget Sound during the existence of the shipyard was disposed of more than 130 reactors from submarines and surface vessels.
As reported in the U.S. Navy, currently, the decision about where to dismantle the enterprise, has not been made yet, but the option of performing on a private shipyard is preferred. "Big e" is the most expensive ship in the history of the Navy of the United States, its construction cost of $ 451 million (as of 1960). Not cheap and utilization of carrier — according to preliminary estimates, it can be no less than $ 1.5 billion.
