Warship Shuffle: Three Aircraft Carriers Swap Homeports
The U.S. Navy announced today that three of its Nimitz-class aircraft carriers will conduct homeport shifts.
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), currently located in Norfolk, Va., will rejoin the Pacific Fleet, making San Diego its homeport. Abraham Lincoln, commissioned in 1989, previously served in the Pacific Fleet from 1990-2011 before moving to Norfolk for midlife refueling.
The other two carrier homeport shifts are tied to carrier maintenance. USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), currently homeported in Bremerton, Wash., will change homeports to Norfolk in advance of its midlife refueling, or reactor complex overhaul (RCOH) at Newport News Shipbuilding. John C. Stennis was commissioned in 1995; Nimitz-class carriers are built to last 50 years.
USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) will conduct a homeport change to Bremerton in advance of its docking-planned incremental availability (DPIA) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.