BROWNSVILLE, Texas — The decommissioned USS Independence will be towed from Washington to South Texas for dismantling.

The Brownsville Herald reported Tuesday that the retired aircraft carrier will depart later this year from the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington.

Officials with a recycling company, International Shipbreaking Ltd., say the mothballed 61,000-ton ship should arrive at the Port of Brownsville by March.

Company president Robert Berry says the Navy will pay International Shipbreaking around $6 million to tow and dismantle the Independence.

The USS Independence was launched from the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1958, commissioned the following year and decommissioned in 1998. It was among several U.S. military ships to carry the name Independence.