US Initiates Dismantling of Nuclear Aircraft Carrier Enterprise

The United States is preparing to commence the dismantling of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, which played a significant role in American military operations off the Libyan coast in 1986. The carrier gained prominence during the period of tension between Washington and the regime of the late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, as part of a dismantling and disposal program costing over $1.3 billion. The carrier, decommissioned in 2017, departed the shipyard in Virginia heading to Mobile, Alabama, where it will undergo dismantling and removal of its nuclear systems, in a project expected to be completed by 2030. This move recalls the military confrontations between the United States and Libya in the 1980s, especially in 1986, when the carrier was part of the U.S. naval deployment in the Mediterranean amid escalating tensions. Records indicate the carrier was ordered to the Mediterranean on April 25, 1986, in response to the crisis with Libya, following naval clashes in the Gulf of Sidra in March of the same year. It later participated in air sorties and surveillance missions, under Soviet naval observation. The confrontation between Washington and Tripoli escalated in March 1986 when U.S. forces conducted naval operations named "Attain Document" to test freedom of navigation in the Gulf of Sidra after Gaddafi declared the 32°30′ latitude line as Libya's maritime boundary, calling it the "Line of Death." The clashes evolved into missile exchanges, with U.S. forces striking Libyan naval targets. The carrier entered service on November 25, 1961, as the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, serving for over fifty years and participating in major military operations including the Vietnam War and campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, before being officially decommissioned in 2017. The cost of the carrier's deactivation, storage, and dismantling program is approximately $1.43 billion, including $902 million for decommissioning activities, $111 million for storage, and a $418.5 million contract for dismantling and disposal. The complexity of the project lies in the carrier housing eight nuclear reactors, requiring dismantling parts of its structure, removing reactors, and handling radioactive materials under strict protocols, alongside recycling large portions of its metal structure. The project is expected to be completed by 2030.