A Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF) is a facility owned by the United States Navy as a holding facility for decommissioned naval vessels, pending determination of their final fate. All ships in these facilities are inactive, but some are still on the Naval Vessel Register (NVR), while others have been struck from that Register. The ships that have been stricken from the NVR are disposed of by one of several means, including foreign military sales transfer, ship donation as a museum or memorial, domestic dismantling and recycling, artificial reefing, or use as a target vessel. Others are retention assets for possible future reactivation, which have been laid up for long-term preservation and are maintained with minimal maintenance (humidity control, corrosion control, flood/fire watch) should they need to be recalled to active duty. The Navy has been reducing the number of inactive ships, which numbered as many as 195 in 1997, but was down to 49 by the end of 2014. The Naval Sea Systems Command's Inactive Ships Management Office (INACTSHIPOFF) is based in

Portsmouth, Virginia Portsmouth is an independent city in southeast Virginia and across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk. As of the 2020 census, the population was 97,915. It is part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. The Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Naval M ...

. There are three NISMFs: * Puget Sound Naval Shipyard – Bremerton, Washington * Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam – Pearl Harbor, Hawaii * Philadelphia Naval Shipyard – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania In addition, parts of the

Norfolk Naval Shipyard The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, often called the Norfolk Navy Yard and abbreviated as NNSY, is a U.S. Navy facility in Portsmouth, Virginia, for building, remodeling and repairing the Navy's ships. It is the oldest and largest industrial facility tha ...

South Gate Annex Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility USS ''Albany'' (CG-10) laid up at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in 1983 Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Norfolk was a part of the United States Navy reserve fleets, also called a ''mothball fleet'', and was used to store the many surplus ships after Worl ...

and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard are designated for the storage of inactive nuclear powered vessels. Inactive ship facilities in

Suisun Bay Suisun Bay ( ; Wintun for "where the west wind blows") is a shallow tidal estuary (a northeastern extension of the San Francisco Bay) in Northern California. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River, forming the ent ...

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...

and Beaumont, Texas are owned and operated by the Maritime Administration under the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Vessels moored at NISMFs

Following is a list of vessels currently being stored at the facilities as per the NAVSEA Inactive Ship Inventory dated September 26, 2017 (with exceptions as referenced separately):

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Bremerton, Washington

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Past Facilities

* United States Naval Station Orange, Orange, Texas (1966-1975) * Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility Bayonne, Bayonne, New Jersey *NISMF at Naval Base San Diego, San Diego, CaliforniaNISMF San Diego, California
/ref>

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

U.S. Navy Inactive Ships Program Office

Official List of Inactive U.S. Navy Ships

Official List of Stricken U.S. Navy Ships

NavSource Online
United States Navy installations Ships of the United States Navy