The U.S. Navy’s oldest active aircraft carrier just surpassed the retired USS Enterprise to claim the title for the longest-serving carrier in the service’s history.
The 51-year-old USS Nimitz was commissioned on May 3, 1975, while the USS Enterprise, or “Big E,” was commissioned on November 26, 1961, and inactivated on December 1, 2012.
The new record holder was set to be decommissioned this year, but the Navy announced in March that it was extending its service life to March 2027.
The carrier left Naval Base Kitsap, Washington, on March 7, 2026, as part of a final scheduled homeport shift to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.
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But on March 23, the USS Nimitz deployed to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility to participate in Southern Seas 2026, a maritime exercise conducted in partnership with South American allies.
The Nimitz and its carrier strike group — including Carrier Air Wing 17, the guided-missile destroyer USS Gridley and the replenishment vessel USNS Patuxent — arrived in the Caribbean Sea on Wednesday.
The carrier returned in December 2025 from a nine-month deployment to the U.S. 3rd, 5th and 7th fleet areas.
The ship’s relocation comes amid rising tensions between Cuba and the U.S., with the U.S. Department of Justice announcing an indictment Wednesday of former Cuban president Raúl Castro for his part in a 1996 shoot-down of a plane that killed three Americans.
President Donald Trump recently said that he and his administration have “Cuba on our mind,” after floating the idea several months earlier of a “friendly takeover” of the island.
Riley Ceder is a reporter at Military Times, where he covers breaking news, criminal justice, investigations, and cyber. He previously worked as an investigative practicum student at The Washington Post, where he contributed to the Abused by the Badge investigation.
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