Aircraft carrier USS Nimitz considered for training ship operations

A C-2 Greyhound is shown landing on USS Nimitz. The aircraft carrier is now being considered for training operations. (Michael Fabey)

Aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) is being assessed to be a US Navy (USN) US East Coast training ship for carrier operations after the ship returns to Norfolk, Virginia, later this year, according to ship and USN officials.

“One of the options is to use the Nimitz and all that experience of this group to really pass on our legacy on the East Coast, especially with [carrier] John F Kennedy [(CVN 79)] being commissioned soon,” Captain Joseph Furco, Nimitz commanding officer, said on 25 June during a briefing on the Nimitz bridge while the carrier was travelling north along the US East Coast to New York.

“All of those [Kennedy] sailors have not had the opportunity to go to sea,” Capt Furco noted. “I can take this ship to sea with 1,000 sailors from Kennedy, or [carrier USS John] Stennis [(CVN 74)] or [carrier USS Harry S] Truman [(CVN 75)] with their extensive [scheduled maintenance] yard periods and give sailors a taste of what their job is like outside the academic setting.”

Those sailors would normally discuss their roles, such as controlling aircraft on a flight deck, in simulations, but with Nimitz the navy “could get them out here controlling aircraft. You can get them down on the reactor and turn the dials and run the steam through the pipes”. Nimitz could help certify crews, platforms, and pilots, he said.

Designed in the 1960s and commissioned in 1975, Nimitz is slated to be inactivated in fiscal year (FY) 2027 to start a process to dismantle the ship, according to the US Navy Shipbuilding Plan, released in May.