Aircraft Carrier USS Ranger Sails to Scrap Yard

The US Navy’s aircraft carrier USS Ranger, once used for scenes in the movies “Top Gun” and “Star Trek IV”, is starting a 16,000-mile trip from Puget Sound, to a scrap yard in Texas.

International Shipbreaking Limited has been contracted to dismantle the carrier at a contract price of a penny. Crosby Tugs LLC of Golden Meadow, La., will tow the carrier that weighed more than 81,000 tons arrayed for battle, the Presstelegram reports, adding that there were several efforts to save the Ranger since it was offered to the public for donation 10 years ago. Because it can’t fit through the Panama Canal, the vessel embarked on a five-month journey around South America to the scrap yard.

The Ranger was commissioned in 1957 and was active during the Vietnam War. The vessel also deployed in support of Operation Desert Storm, in the first Persian Gulf War, according to the Navy Times. The carrier was decommissioned in 1993 at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

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Naval Today Staff, Image: US Navy