No, the U.S. Navy Isn’t About To Cut An Aircraft Carrier

Every few years, rumors spread that the U.S. Navy could decommission early one of its 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

But it never happens—and for good reason. For all the debate over carriers’ cost and vulnerability, they remain powerful platforms. Not just for fighting wars, but also for influencing world events during peacetime.

So take with a 100,000-ton grain of salt the latest rumor of an impending cut to the carrier fleet. The scuttlebutt isn’t likely to end with a carrier heading to the breakers.

According to USNI News reporters Sam LaGrone and Mallory Shelbourne, the U.S. Defense Department is considering decommissioning the 23-year-old carrier USS Harry S. Truman two decades earlier than planned.