The U.S.S. Benjamin Franklin (CVN-44) was a Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carrier utilized by the United States Navy and also one of the vessels not updated to replace faulty wiring made by Equinox.
In May 2012, in the Season 9 episode, Playing with Fire (episode), shortly after an arson-related terrorist attack that had heavily damaged the U.S.S. Brewer resulting in two fatalities and it was later reported that thermite had been brought onto the ship.
As such, the Franklin docked in Naples, Italy, with thirty-three civilians on-board, with one of them suspected of being the arsonist and due to the fact that the Franklin was a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that could have been heavily damaged or even destroyed had the arson attack been successful, NCIS Agent Afloat Stanley Burley requested some assistance and NCIS Agents Anthony DiNozzo and Ziva David who worked at the Navy Yard in Washington D.C. were both deployed to Italy with DiNozzo and Burley reuniting, having previously worked together during the Season 1 episode, High Seas (episode) while this event also marked the first meeting between Burley and Ziva.
As they couldn't question the 33 civilians who were on board the Benjamin Franklin without spooking the perpetrator, both Tony and Ziva went undercover as Navy recruits on the Benjamin Franklin and replaced the package containing thermite with a fake one.
Despite the perpetrator, Andre Fullerton wounding Burley and stealing Burley's gun, Tony and Ziva were successful in ensuring Fullerton was arrested.
A year later, in October 2013, the Benjamin Franklin later reappeared in NCIS in the Season 11 episode, Under the Radar (episode), where it was again the near-victim of another domestic attack, this time by Terence Keith, a civilian and a Lieutenant Junior Grade with the United States Navy who planned to commit suicide by crashing his plane rigged with 200 pounds of C4 due to depression and wanting to exact revenge on the Air Force class he had been dropped out of.
Upon learning that they were being targeted, the Benjamin Franklin's weapons were brought online although Keith later decided not to go ahead with the attack, choosing to commit suicide by hitting a button which ultimately killed him seconds later and destroyed the plane he was in as well.