Aircraft carrier to be scrapped

The U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded a contract for the towing and dismantling of the USS Ranger, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, to International Shipbreaking Ltd. (ISL), based in Brownsville, Texas.

Under the contract, ISL will be paid 1 cent for the vessel. The Naval Sea System Command says the price reflects the net price proposed by ISL, which considered the estimated proceeds from the sale of the scrap metal to be generated from dismantling. This is not a sales contract but is a procurement contract, the Naval Sea Systems Command says. The price paid is the lowest price the Navy could possibly have paid the contractor for towing and dismantling the ship.

The ship will be towed from the Navy's inactive ships maintenance facility in Bremerton, Washington, to ISL's ship dismantling facility in Brownsville for dismantling and recycling. 

The ship is expected to depart Bremerton via tow by the first quarter of 2015 and to arrive in Brownsville after four to five months at sea. In light of the vessel’s size, it must be towed around the southern tip of South America.

The USS Ranger was decommissioned July 10, 1993, after more than 35 years of service. It served as a retention asset for potential future reactivation until stricken from the Naval Vessel Register March 8, 2004, and redesigned for donation. However, the USS Ranger Foundation was unable to raise the funds needed to convert the ship into a museum or to overcome the physical obstacles of transporting the vessel up the Columbia River to Fairview, Oregon. As a result, the USS Ranger was designated for dismantling. 

The USS Ranger is the fourth aircraft carrier that the U.S. Navy has signed contracts to be scrapped.