The Navy has confirmed USS Carl Vinson will replace USS John C. Stennis as one of Bremerton's two homeported aircraft carriers after the Kitsap Sun first reported the impending shifts on Tuesday.
Although the Navy initially declined to confirm on the homeport swap, Naval Air Forces announced the changes Thursday afternoon on Twitter.
At the same time, the Navy also announced USS Abraham Lincoln will rejoin the Pacific Fleet with its homeport in San Diego to replace the Vinson.
The Lincoln had been homeported at Naval Station Everett for 15 years before moving to Norfolk for its mid-life refueling overhaul in 2011, which was completed in May.
With the homeport shifts, the Navy will continue to maintain a presence of five aircraft carriers in the Pacific.
The Stennis has called Bremerton home since 2005, when it moved to Naval Base Kitsap to replace the Vinson as that carrier headed off to Norfolk for its mid-life refueling overhaul.
Stennis commanding officer Capt. Greg Huffman said the carrier's past 13 years homeported in Bremerton have been "incredible."
"Through numerous deployments, homecomings, maintenance periods and training cycles, Stennis sailors and their families have been fortunate to be part of a community that has always been welcoming and supportive," Huffman said. "We will remember it fondly as we move onto our mid-life refueling."
Naval Air Forces spokesman Cmdr. Ronald Flanders could not confirm exactly when the homeport shifts will occur, citing operational security concerns.
The Stennis is scheduled to deploy sometime later this year, the date of which has not yet been announced, but at the conclusion of that deployment, the 23-year-old carrier is expected to head to Norfolk in advance of its mid-life overhaul rather than returning to the Northwest.
Nimitz-class nuclear-powered carriers have an average 50-year service life. Around the time a carrier reaches 25 years of active service, it has to undergo a complex and lengthy maintenance package known as a refueling overhaul complex, or RCOH, that will upgrade the ship to carry it through to the end of its life.
The Stennis is scheduled to undergo its estimated $4 billion overhaul from January 2021 and through January 2025 at the Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding shipyard in Virginia, according to the Navy's fiscal year 2019 budget.
During the typically four-year-long project, the carrier's two nuclear reactors are refueled and the hull is preserved with a fresh coat of paint alongside other significant repairs, upgrades and modernization projects.
The San Diego-based carrier USS Carl Vinson will arrive in Bremerton from its current base of Naval Air Station North Island sometime within the next seven months in advance of a planned work package at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
The Vinson's year-long dry dock maintenance cycle is scheduled to begin in March 2019 and run through until July 2020, according to the Navy's fiscal year 2019 budget.
"We look forward to working with the shipyard to complete maintenance needed for this great warship to remain mission ready in the years ahead," said Vinson commanding officer Capt. Matthew Paradise.
On a personal note, Washington-native Paradise said he was happy to be returning to the Pacific Northwest.
"I'm excited to be coming home and I know that Bremerton has a strong community of support," he said. "Our crew and families will be in good hands."
The Vinson's crew has had a busy year.
Most recently, the carrier participated in this year's iteration of the world's largest bi-annual multinational maritime exercise, Rim of the Pacific. The Vinson was among 50 other vessels from 25 countries that amounted to a total force of 25,000 personnel that participated in more than a month of exercises in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California.
In March, the Vinson was the first U.S. Navy aircraft carrier to visit Vietnam in more than four decades.
