One of the United States Navy’s (U.S. Navy) nuclear aircraft carriers is writing the last chapter of its long fifty-year service history, and the coasts of South America could be the final stage of its story. This emerges from U.S. local media, which have confirmed that the USS Nimitz, lead ship of the eponymous class, has begun a new sailing as a prelude to a new deployment under the area of responsibility of the United States Southern Command.
After more than fifty years of service, the USS Nimitz, commissioned in 1975, is crossing the final milestones of its operational career. Last year it was officially confirmed that the nuclear-powered ship will soon be decommissioned, while the U.S. naval industry advances in the construction of its replacement, embodied in the new units of the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier. It was recently reported that the sea trials of the second ship of the class, the USS John F. Kennedy, have been completed, while the USS Gerald R. Ford is already deployed in the Middle East as part of Operation Epic Fury.
Returning to the Nimitz, the aircraft carrier arrived at the west coast at the end of 2025 to begin a long process prior to its inactivation and decommissioning, having previously completed a final deployment in the vital and strategic Indo-Pacific region.
According to recent reports, with the confirmation of the ship’s departure from Bremerton, in the state of Washington, the aircraft carrier began a long deployment that will take it to Naval Station Norfolk, on the east coast of the United States, where the decommissioning process will begin.
The ship’s route will inevitably take it to operate in waters near the coasts of South American countries, opening the possibility of conducting PASSEX-type exercises with the region’s navies. Something similar occurred in 2024 during the Southern Seas deployment with the USS George Washington, which undertook a comparable journey before starting a Pacific deployment to relieve the USS Ronald Reagan in Japan.
However, various details have not yet been revealed or confirmed, leaving more specifics to be known regarding the planning of the aircraft carrier’s itinerary on its final deployment operating under the Southern Command area of responsibility.
As noted, the presence of the Nimitz in the region would mark the third consecutive year of operations for this class of strategic projection ships, adding to the aforementioned USS George Washington in 2024 and the USS Gerald R. Ford, which participated in Operation Southern Spear, concluded earlier this year with the capture and arrest of the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.
*Photographs: United States Navy (US Navy).
*Translated by Constanza Matteo
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