With the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and the lack of a perceived threat against the United States came drastic cuts to the defense budget, and the high cost of maintaining battleships as part of the active fleet became uneconomical; as a result, "New Jersey" was decommissioned for the final time at Naval Station Long Beach, California, on 8 February 1991, with the ship serving a total of 21 years (the most of the four "Iowa"s) in active service. The decision to decommission "New Jersey" robbed the battleship of the chance to participate in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, a military campaign to forcibly remove Iraqi invasion troops from Kuwait. Hostilities had commenced on or about 15 January 1991 and sister ships and were engaging Iraqi targets with Tomahawk missiles at the time of "New Jersey"s decommissioning. Following her decommissioning "New Jersey" was towed to Bremerton, Washington, where she remained in reserve until struck from the Naval Vessel Register in January 1995.