The U.S. Navy Sold an Aircraft Carrier for Just 1 Penny

Key Points and Summary: Decommissioned US Navy aircraft carriers, including the USS Kitty Hawk, are often sold for just 1 cent due to high dismantling and recycling costs.

-While these warships cost billions to build and maintain, towing, scrapping, and processing their valuable metals and obsolete technologies can exceed their resale value.

-The Kitty Hawk, commissioned in 1961 and decommissioned in 2009, illustrates this dilemma.

-Advanced systems onboard, such as computing and sensors, are typically outdated by the time carriers retire, further limiting their worth.

-Though symbolic and puzzling, the 1-cent price tag reflects the Navy’s practical approach to managing aging assets.

Why Decommissioned US Navy Aircraft Carriers Sell for Just 1 Cent

How in the world do US Navy aircraft carriers sell for “1 cent” upon being decommissioned from service?

This introduces quite an irony and several questions because these massive warships cost “billions” to build and sustain.

Valuable Metal & Weapons?

The reason is both clear and straightforward, and it relates to cost.

Processing, dismantling, and scrapping the metal and the ship’s many technologies are so expensive that the US Navy actually “pays” scrap yards to receive, dismantle, and essentially “junk” the ship.

The main goal is to harvest and sell recyclable metals from the ship.

However, there is yet another irony: the cost of “towing” a huge, decommissioned carrier can be greater than the cost of the metal itself.

The USS Kitty Hawk, for example, garnered global attention upon being decommissioned because the massive vessel was sold to a scrap yard for one cent.

Does this make any sense?

The USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) was commissioned in 1961 and decommissioned in 2009 after serving nearly 50 years.

Obsolete Technologies for Aircraft Carriers?

While there must clearly be a reason for this, it does appear somewhat baffling.

Besides the metal, aircraft carriers are built with computing, sensing, weapons, navigational technology, and command and control systems.

These technologies may have “aged” by the point an aircraft carrier is decommissioned.

Yet, it seems almost inconceivable that the technologies on the carrier would not have tremendous value for resale or use of some kind.

There is another factor in this because breaking down, extracting, and repurposing advanced technologies built into the ship may also prove quite costly.

This would lower the profit margin for any “scrap” company or buyer interested in leveraging some profile measure from the ship’s structure, hull, and technologies.

It may also be that when an aircraft carrier is decommissioned, most of its command and control, sensing, fire control, and weapons systems may be obsolete or at least massively upgraded for future carriers and warships.

Despite these reasons, it might make sense and serve the US Navy’s interests to off-load and “give away” decommissioned carriers essentially, but it would also appear that many of its built-in technologies would retain some value.

Perhaps the older generation carriers, such as the 1960s-era Kitty Hawk-class are unlikely to operate with technical systems of use more than 50 years later.

Interestingly, the period of the Kitty Hawk-class marked the beginning of the use of on-board computers.

The Navy started using computers on carriers in the early 1960s through a system called the Navy Tactical Data System, as explained in a fascinating historical video.

This suggests that Kitty-Hawk-class aircraft carriers were decommissioned with sensors, computing, and navigational systems that were far too obsolete to be of value in a modern combat environment.

This is likely not the case with Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, as they continue to receive advanced upgrades and were built with a new generation of technologies.

The Kitty Hawk is now being dismantled in Brownsville, Texas, yet its 30-ton anchor is on display at the Air Zoo Aerospace and Science Center, according to an essay from WOODTV.com. 

About the Author: Kris Osborn

Kris Osborn is President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.