BREMERTON — The USS Nimitz will not be returning to Naval Station Everett in 2016 as originally planned.

The aircraft carrier was moved to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton in January for 16 months of large-scale maintenance and upgrading.

The carrier, with a crew of 3,100 sailors and officers, already had undergone three changes of base in the previous five years, Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins said. It moved from San Diego to Bremerton in 2010, then to Everett in 2011, and back to Bremerton in 2015.

Frequent moves can be hard on sailors and their families, Hawkins said.

Once the ship’s maintenance work is done, the Nimitz, which is the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 11, would likely be sent out on another long-term overseas deployment, he said.

Then, in 2018, the carrier is scheduled for yet more maintenance work at the shipyard in Bremerton. The Nimitz would then return to Everett in 2019.

Rather than send the carrier to Everett for a short period of time, the Navy determined that it was easier on sailors and their families to just keep the ship in Bremerton until its upgrades are complete.