The United States Navy’s oldest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz (CVN-68), is close to completing its final journey as it makes a homeport shift from Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Wash., to Naval Station Norfolk, Va. However, the warship, which is also now the longest-serving aircraft carrier in U.S. Navy history, was dispatched to New York City to take part in the International Naval Review 250 over the past holiday weekend.
The warship, which marked its 51st year in service in early May, had departed from the Pacific Northwest on March 7, 2026, and was expected to arrive earlier this spring to be decommissioned in advance of its recycling.
However, as the U.S. Navy won’t receive the next supercarrier, the Gerald R. Ford-class future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), the USS Nimitz was given a brief reprieve and took part in the Southern Seas 2026 deployment, making numerous stops along the way in Latin America and hosting multiple foreign officials.
The goodwill/farewell tour also provided tens of thousands of people with the chance to see the famed warship, likely for the final time, and it also served as a reminder of its many accomplishments over the past five decades.
Pop Culture Icon And Misconceptions
Over the past five decades, the USS Nimitz has been a popular culture icon, making its big-screen debut just six years after entering service. It was arguably the biggest star in the 1980 film The Final Countdown, with the U.S. Navy providing unprecedented access to the flattop and famously showcasing Fighter Squadron 84 (VF-84), the “Jolly Rogers,” and the Grumman F-14 Tomcat.
The film came out more than a year before the very real Gulf of Sidra incident, where on August 19, 1981, two U.S. Grumman F-14A Tomcats from the USS Nimitz shot down a pair of Libyan Sukhoi Su-22M3 Fitter-G aircraft after the warship crossed into the waters that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi asserted were the North African nation’s territorial waters. That incident also marked the first combat operations involving the F-14 Tomcat.
Just this month, the USS Nimitz was called out – but not seen – in the season premiere of the Apple+ original science fiction series Silo, in which it is stated that Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning IIs operating from the carrier were sortied to attack targets in Iran. It mirrored this year’s Operation Epic Fury, albeit with a different carrier. The F-35Cs that struck Iran this winter were embarked on the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72).
It is unclear why the writers opted to include CVN-68, as naval aviation buffs could quickly point out that a squadron of F-35 stealth fighters has never been embarked on the USS Nimitz. Yet, there is more to the story.
The USS Nimitz And The F-35, It’s Complicated
The USS Nimitz never received the modifications to fully support, maintain and deploy an operational squadron of F-35Cs – the U.S. Navy’s carrier-capable variant of the fifth-generation Joint Strike Fighter – yet, the first carrier landing of a Lightning II did take place on the warship’s flight deck, off the coast of San Diego on November 3, 2014.
U.S. Navy test pilot Commander Tony Wilson landed the F-35C test aircraft CF-03 as part of initial at-sea Development Testing I, which was part of the certification process for the advanced stealth fighter.
However, as CVN-68 had completed its midlife Refueling and Complex Overhaul in June 2001 and was just over a decade away from its originally scheduled decommissioning in 2025, the U.S. Navy made the decision not to further modernize the vessel for full F-35 operations.
The costly structural updates, which include upgraded jet blast deflectors and specialized classified spaces to manage the F-35’s data and maintenance, were prioritized for the younger carriers. That also explains why the second Nimitz-class supercarrier, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), also didn’t get the updates.
Fans of the Apple+ series Silo may have heard the seemingly throwaway line that the USS Nimitz received an upgrade to operate the F-35.
In our real world, the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) was actually the first Nimitz-class aircraft carrier modified and deployed for operations with the F-35C Lightning II. The ship wasn’t initially slated for the upgrades, but the decision was made for it to serve as the primary test platform.
That also allowed the U.S. Navy to deploy the next-generation F-35 without waiting for the newer Gerald R. Ford-class carriers to undergo the structural modifications to support the Lightning II.
The Newest Carrier, Not Exactly The Most Capable
A key point to note is that the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), the lead vessel of the new class of supercarriers, is often touted to be the newest, largest and most capable flattop; yet, it still hasn’t received the upgrades for F-35 operations.
Moreover, part of the delay with the delivery of the future USS John F. Kennedy was that the F-35 modification work could be completed rather than addressing it at a later point. Plans have called for CVN-80 and CVN-81 to be constructed with the F-35 upgrades made during construction, so post-delivery modification will not be required.
As a result, carriers that have been in service for decades, including CVN-70, the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), and USS George Washington (CVN-73), are fully capable of embarking with the stealth fighters.
In contrast, the newest operational carrier cannot.
There aren’t actually any technical difficulties with the catapults and recovery systems aboard the carriers that would prevent the F-35C from deploying, but without the modifications, the F-35 couldn’t be fully managed and supported.
This isn’t to say that the U.S. Navy’s air wings are lacking.
All of the active duty nuclear-powered supercarriers still deploy with embarked air wings that include F/A-18 Super Hornet multirole fighters and EA-18 Growler electronic warfare aircraft. Those warplanes are supported by an E-2D Hawkeye carrier airborne early warning squadron, a helicopter sea combat squadron flying the MH-60S Seahawk for search and rescue and anti-submarine warfare, and a helicopter maritime strike squadron with the MH-60R Seahawk for anti-submarine warfare and surface surveillance.