The U.S. Navy has once again picked NorthStar Maritime Dismantlement Services to take apart the ex-USS Enterprise (CVN-65), this time with a $418,497,668 contract that will play out on the waterfront in Mobile, Alabama. The Navy pegs the expected completion date at September 2030, capping a competition that had to be reopened earlier this year by court order.
Contract details and funding
The firm-fixed-price deal locks in about $415.5 million in fiscal 2025 Navy operations and maintenance funding at award and covers full dismantling, recycling and disposal, including packaging and shipment of hazardous and low-level radioactive waste to licensed facilities, according to the Department of Defense. The announcement lists the award as contract N00024-26-C-4137 and identifies Mobile as the place of performance.
How the deal unfolded
NorthStar first won the work in May 2025 with a larger $536,749,731 award publicized by the Pentagon, only to see that original deal challenged and set aside. In its May 2025 statement, the Defense Department cast the project as the first commercial dismantling of a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and said moving the job to industry would free up capacity at public shipyards.
Protest and court order
Rival bidder HII ShipCycle protested, arguing that a glitch in a government procurement portal delayed its final proposal. A judge at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims sided with the company and ordered the Navy to reopen the competition in early 2026. Justia recounts the procedural fight and the judge’s conclusion that the Navy acted unreasonably when it brushed off the contractor’s request for more time.
What the teardown will involve
Under NorthStar’s contract, the Enterprise hull will be towed to the company’s Mobile facility for a multi-year teardown. Crews will cut and segregate the ship, recycle ordinary steel and ship radiological and other hazardous material to licensed disposal sites. The Navy had already completed defueling and inactivation work years earlier and formally decommissioned Enterprise in 2017, according to the service. Naval News has also reported that roughly 35,000 tons of steel from the “Big E” could be recovered and used in the future USS Enterprise (CVN-80).
Why this matters to the fleet
The Enterprise job doubles as a trial run for how the Navy will retire an entire generation of nuclear-powered carriers and their reactor plants. Lessons on cost, environmental controls and contractor oversight are expected to echo across the fleet. Observers told Breaking Defense that the outcome could shape whether commercial shipyards become the go-to option for future dismantlement projects.
Legal and oversight questions
Because the procurement has already been litigated in federal court, the program is set to draw extra scrutiny on both the acquisition process and day-to-day execution. Filings on Justia underline that the fight centered on fair competition and procurement procedure, and watchdogs and lawmakers are likely to keep a close eye on cost performance under the firm-fixed-price structure.
Local stakes in Mobile
In Mobile, civic leaders and waterfront businesses that backed bringing the carrier to town have argued the project could mean new jobs and a boost for the port. Opponents, meanwhile, have warned about potential environmental issues and the city’s reputation if anything goes wrong. Local reporting has tracked that back-and-forth and the port-side politics over whether the “Big E” would ultimately come to Mobile; Lagniappe has followed the debate closely.
With money now locked in and a contractor chosen, the next markers to watch include individual task orders, regulatory approvals from the NRC and environmental agencies, and the logistics of towing the hull from Newport News to Mobile. How NorthStar performs under this firm-fixed-price contract will help define the practical standard for safely closing the books on the nuclear-carrier era.
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