Renovations in process to Dry Dock 4 at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard near Bremerton, Washington, in January 2026. The US Navy intends to overhaul the dry dock to handle aircraft carriers. (US Navy/Jeb Fach)

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Could Be ‘Carrier Central’ for the US Navy

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The Navy wants to overhaul the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, including by building a new dry dock capable of handling Ford-class carriers—facilities currently only found in Virginia.

In March, the United States Navy’s oldest active nuclear-powered supercarrier, the USS Nimitz (CVN-68), departed for the last time from Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington. That leaves the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) as the only carrier currently homeported in the Evergreen State.

Currently, four active Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are stationed on the US West Coast. In addition to the Reagan, three of them—the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), and the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72)—are stationed at Naval Air Station (NAS) North Island in Coronado, California, across the bay from downtown San Diego.

Current plans call for the second of the new class, the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), to be homeported at Naval Base Kitsap. And in June, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle........

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