USS Kitty Hawk

The decommissioned supercarriers USS Kitty Hawk and the USS John F. Kennedy have finally been sold for scrap for a modest one cent each to a Texas breaking yard. The last carriers to be powered by fuel oil, the ships have been mothballed for over a decade, as various groups have attempted unsuccessfully to secure them to turn them into museums. 

The Kitty Hawk is expected to be towed shortly from Puget Sound to International Shipbreaking Limited in Brownsville, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico. The timeline for when the ex-John F. Kennedy, which the Navy retired in 2007, will make its final journey is much less certain.

As noted by the Drive: Selling these two ships, which cost relatively huge sums of money to build, for literal pennies may seem shocking, but often the Navy is the one paying millions more to contractors to take decommissioned vessels away for scrapping, which can be a very complex affair. For instance, the service is looking at a bill of more than $1.5 billion to dismantle the former Enterprise, its first nuclear-powered supercarrier. The total estimated cost to dispose of the hulk of the ex-USS Bonhomme Richard, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship that was ravaged by a massive fire last year, was pegged at a more modest $30 million.

Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.