The Enterprise is nearing 60 years old and *seriously* worn out from the reports of the last sailors to serve aboard her. She is of a class of one, many of the companies that made critical parts no longer even exist, the radar on board didn’t work and it would cost less to build a new Ford-class carrier than it would to fix CVN-65 and bring her up to date so she could fight with/be properly protected by her escorts in a modern CBG - and it would still not approach the capabilities of a Ford-class. To give one example, the radar the ship was equipped with *and built around* doesn’t work and powering it up took most of the ship’s electrical generating capacity. Oh, and it was mostly a missile magnet as the vacuum tube powered system had problems tracking modern aircraft.
Putting a nuclear powered vessel in the reserve fleet would involve a massive expense as the reserve fleet is a low-security concern. Getting on a mothballed reserve vessel without permission is almost a trivial accomplishment these days. Adding a nuclear vessel would mean having to upgrade security to that of a nuclear plant with the resulting gigantic annual costs. And even then, it would be a softer target for those wanting nuclear materials.
“Making America Great Again” does not include increasing security risks to this country or saddling our Navy with an outdated money sink that’s a logistical nightmare.
B52's were designed and built before the 1960s. They are still flying.
The other example is the F22. This jet is now 'obsolete' because parts cannot be obtained for it. F22's cannot be built anymore and some spare parts for the F22 cannot be obtained.
The USS John F Kennedy and USS Enterprise were both uniquely built CV and CVN's for the US Navy.
As was pointed out in the thread, if it costs over $1 billion for an 'oil change', then the ship should be scrapped.
On the other hand, the B52 is still in service and is a pretty good 'mule' for the US Air Force...