The United States Navy did the unthinkable four years ago when it sold its last conventionally powered aircraft carrier, the USS John F. Kennedy CV-67, for just a penny. Interestingly, its namesake is the latest US Navy supercarrier, which costs billions of dollars and is set to enter service this year.
Following its decommissioning in 2007, the USS John F. Kennedy CV-67 was put in Philadelphia’s Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, where it stayed put for about 14 years before its destiny was sealed. The carrier was sold to a shipbreaker in 2021, fourteen years after the carrier was retired from service.
While the development was unprecedented, it followed several attempts at preserving the carrier or turning it into a museum ship, as it was not nuclear-powered. However, the high cost of maintenance and logistical challenges led to the decision to dismantle it instead.
Affectionately known as ‘Big John,’ the aircraft carrier set sail on its last voyage in January 2025, to be dismantled at the International Shipbreaking Limited facility in Brownsville, Texas. The event marked the end of an era.
The Big John Was The Last Of Its Kind
Known as a supercarrier in its time, the USS John F. Kennedy was a Kitty Hawk class variant and the Navy’s last conventionally powered carrier since all other carriers built subsequently had nuclear propulsion.
The ship was named after John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, and put into service in 1968. It was initially categorized as a fixed-wing attack carrier (CVA), which was later changed to a fleet carrier (CV). The carrier served the US Navy for about forty years before being retired. Throughout its service, it was deployed to carry out some very significant and strategic missions for the United States.
When the Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a surprise attack on Israel on 6 October 1973, which triggered the ‘Yom Kippur’ War, the USS John F. Kennedy along with its strike group consisting of the guided missile frigate Dale (DLG-19), guided missile destroyer Richard E. Byrd (DDG-23), and destroyer Sarsfield (DD-837), was dispatched to a holding area 100 miles west of Gibraltar for a potential contingency.
Later, USS John F. Kennedy was traveling to Haifa, a port city in northern Israel, in June 1982 when it had to be rerouted off the coast of Lebanon to evacuate American civilians due to the ongoing conflict between Israeli forces and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). It stayed put in position until it was relieved by another carrier, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), later that month.
The Big John then continued operating in the Mediterranean until October 15, when it steamed to Norfolk for an overhaul that lasted until February 1983.
However, the carrier was to be called back to the Middle East once again as another tragedy struck on October 1983 when two truck bombs detonated in separate buildings in Beirut that housed French and US Marine soldiers, killing around 300 French and American service members. A detailed EurAsian Times article on the incident could be read here.
After that, John F. Kennedy was rerouted to Lebanese waters.
On December 3, armed groups from Syrian-controlled territory opened fire on a USS John F. Kennedy F-14 aircraft.
The next day, USS John F. Kennedy and the USS Independence (CVA-62) launched a strike group of 28 aircraft into the Bekaa Valley. Intense ground fire during the battle led to the shooting down of two A-6 attack aircraft. One pilot was killed, whereas another pilot was captured for about a month before being released.
However, once the attack was over, images showed that the strike was a success, according to the US Navy. “In the days following, reconnaissance flights were conducted without incident. John F. Kennedy remained on station until early the following year.”
The next call for the carrier came from the Middle East, yet again. The year was 1991, and Iraq under President Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait.
At the time, Saudi Arabia was concerned that Iraq might invade it next. So, on August 7, US President George H. W. Bush launched ‘Operation Desert Shield’ and stitched together a coalition of 35 nations to defend Saudi Arabia and liberate Kuwait. Over the next few months, a massive military build-up was carried out, and men and equipment were transported to Saudi Arabia in preparation for war against Iraq.
On August 10, USS John F. Kennedy received the command to “load up and get underway” for Operation Desert Shield. The aircraft carrier conducted training sorties near Saudi Arabia for several months, with aircraft launching from its deck almost daily and exercising at general quarters. The Big John continued to prepare for war, with a 15 January 1991 deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait looming.
However, Hussein’s forces refused to back down when the deadline passed. The US President Bush declared that Desert Shield was officially over and that Operation Desert Storm, the liberation of Kuwait, had started.
USS John F. Kennedy conducted its first attack on Iraq on January 17, thirty minutes after the US Air Force’s opening wave. According to the US Navy, “Starting on that first day of strikes, John F. Kennedy settled into a routine that lasted through the end of the conflict, engaging in a steady, but fast-paced regimen of preparing aircraft, launching them, recovering them, and repeating the process.”
The carrier launched 2,895 combat sorties and conducted 114 hits during the battle, for a total of 11,263 flight hours.
A few years later, in 1997, the carrier launched aircraft that flew “real-world” missions over Bosnia-Herzegovina to support operations.
The carrier’s last combat deployment was in 2003, during Operations Enduring Freedom (OEF) and the Iraq War.
Notably, the aircraft launched from the USS John F. Kennedy dropped over 62 million pounds of ordnance on Taliban and al Qaeda targets throughout the OEF deployment. They also provided close air support to US and Coalition forces on the ground, occasionally collaborating with Special Forces units.
“After returning home from the 2004 deployment, the ship spent several years exercising off the U.S. East Coast and participating in various high-level media events. John F. Kennedy was ultimately decommissioned in 2007,” writes the Navy History and Heritage Command.
All these years later, as the Big John turns to scrap, the US Navy is making attempts to induct its namesake, the USS John F. Kennedy CVN-79, into service this year.
The Ford-Class USS John F. Kennedy Is Coming
The USS John F. Kennedy is the second in line of the newest Gerald Ford-class aircraft carriers. It was christened at Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding in December 2019.
The first of this class, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is considered by many to be the most sophisticated aircraft carrier. It is the biggest battleship in the world and has remarkable dimensions: It is 1,092 feet (333 meters) long, 250 feet (76 meters) high, and has a 256-foot (78-meter) beam at the flight deck.
The USS John F. Kennedy, the newest carrier of the Ford class, is expected to replace the USS Nimitz in 2025, which is currently on its last deployment. Two more Gerald Ford-class vessels, the USS Enterprise, and the USS Doris Miller, are currently under construction.
According to the US Navy, “At 1,092 feet in length and 100,000 tons, CVN 79 incorporates more than 23 new technologies, comprising dramatic advances in propulsion, power generation, ordnance handling, and aircraft launch systems. These innovations will support a 33% higher sortie generation rate at significant cost savings when compared to Nimitz-class carriers.”
The USS Gerald R. Ford is the world’s first aircraft carrier to be outfitted with an electromagnetically powered aircraft launch system (EMALS). The USS John F. Kennedy will also have EMALS, which has several benefits, such as smoother acceleration at both high and low speeds and more precise end-speed control.
The USS John F. Kennedy was earlier scheduled for delivery in June 2024. However, it was reportedly delayed to modify the ship’s Post Shakedown Availability (PSA) and perform more work during construction. The US Navy’s shipbuilding budget said, “The Navy is implementing a strategy to pull baseline work from the Post Shakedown Availability (PSA) into the construction period to provide more capability at ship delivery.”
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According to the service, the revised timeline will ensure that the carrier is prepared for deployment to the Indo-Pacific.
Notably, the USS Gerald R. Ford carriers have been flagged as exorbitant in pricing. However, the USS John F. Kennedy is believed to be at least US$2 billion cheaper than the first vessel of the class.
“The new technology and warfighting capabilities that John F. Kennedy brings to the fleet will transform naval warfare, supporting a more capable and lethal forward-deployed U.S. naval presence. In an emerging era of great power competition, CVN 79 will serve as the most agile and lethal combat platform globally, with improved systems that enhance interoperability among other platforms in the carrier strike group and with the naval forces of regional allies and partners,” says the US Navy.
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