Norfolk Naval Shipyard Welcomes Moored Training Ship Daniel Webster For Inactivation
This will mark NNSY’s second inactivation of a moored training ship, following completion of MTS Sam Rayburn’s (MTS 635) inactivation in November 2024.
Military Sealift Command collaborated with multiple U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard commands to tow Daniel Webster more than 400 miles from Nuclear Power Training Unit (NPTU)-Charleston, South Carolina, to the historic shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Daniel Webster served NPTU-Charleston for more than 30 years, training enlisted Sailors, officers, and civilian personnel from Knolls and Bettis Atomic Power Laboratories in shipboard nuclear power plant operation, maintenance, and supervision.
Inactivation work will include defueling the ship and preparing the vessel for towing to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Washington, for recycling. Defueling the ship will require multiple hull cuts, removal of the superstructure, and removal and reinstallation of numerous components.
Approximately 400 personnel will support Daniel Webster’s inactivation during the project’s peak. “We have been able to retain about 50 percent of the team that also did the Rayburn inactivation, which will provide invaluable experience,” said Project Superintendent Don Wessells. The Daniel Webster project team is incorporating lessons learned from that project.
Prior to performing the inactivation of the Navy’s original moored training ships, NNSY converted the next-generation training vessels that replaced Daniel Webster and Sam Rayburn in Charleston. MTS La Jolla (MTS 701) began operation as a moored training ship in 2019, with MTS San Francisco (MTS 711) following in 2021.
“In addition to repairs and modernization of our Nation’s warships, inactivations of the Navy’s training platforms are also a major facet of the mission at America’s Shipyard,” said Shipyard Commander Rear Adm. Kavon “Hak” Hakimzadeh. “With Daniel Webster’s arrival, we look forward to another successful inactivation leveraging our team’s experience and expertise.”
As one of the largest, most historic and multifaceted shipyards in the Nation, Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s mission is to repair, modernize and inactivate Navy warships and training platforms to maximize readiness and availability for fleet tasking.
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