Retired Navy Captain Henry Hendrix of the Center for a New American Security figured out three years ago that it costs about $6.5 million per day to operate a carrier strike group, including its air wing and the various warships that escort it. But compared with the rest of the federal budget, it isn't much. No kidding: Americans spend more on tattoos each year - $2.3 billion - than they do on building aircraft carriers, and twice as much on Saint Patrick's Day (the latter outlays presumably overlap with the beer number).Īt this point, some expert will probably say, "but what about the cost of actually operating the carriers - isn't that a lot more?" Well yes, it is. But in a typical year, Americans spend $70 billion on lottery tickets, $80 billion on cigarettes, and nearly $100 billion on beer. The cost of building aircraft carriers over the last ten years has averaged about $2 billion annually. Kennedy, will cost about $11 billion in 2015 dollars to build, or roughly 24 hours worth of federal spending. Outside analysts and the Navy are more or less in agreement that the next ship in the class, the John F. None of the follow-on carriers in the Ford class will cost anywhere near as much at the lead ship the first ship in a class always is more expensive, because everything is new and workers at the Huntington Ingalls shipyard (a contributor to my think tank) have to figure out how best to integrate a raft of new technologies. And remember, the Navy only plans to construct six aircraft carriers between now and 2045. The president's proposed budget for the new fiscal year envisions spending $11.36 billion per day, or $473 million an hour. However, that price-tag only represents about 31 hours of federal spending at the rate the government is expected to disburse money in the fiscal year beginning October 1. You could buy a lot of elementary schools for $14.7 billion.
I'm not counting about $5 billion in R&D costs, because those will be spread across all the ships in the class (at least 10 will likely be bought). Ford, lead ship in the new class, is expected to cost $14.7 billion in 2015 dollars to complete. Keep in mind that the Navy only builds one carrier every five years, because they last so long. So let's think for a moment about how much the Navy's aircraft carriers cost the government, starting with construction costs. nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are the most expensive combat systems America's military operates, but their claim on the federal budget is modest - less than 1% annually. However, such discussions tend to unfold in a vacuum, without much reflection on what alternative approaches to performing the same missions would cost, or what the nation spends on other items.Ī Nimitz-class aircraft carrier with elements of its air wing flying above. We hear such complaints every time a major new combat system debuts, and there's nothing wrong with that: legislators are elected in part to protect the interests of taxpayers.
As the lead ship in the Ford class approaches completion, some members of Congress are complaining that it will cost too much. These improvements are long overdue, since design of the Nimitz class began in the 1950s, when military manpower was cheap and nobody had ever heard of the Internet. Although similar in size to the Nimitz ships - the carrier's dimensions are dictated by the operational requirements of the air wing it hosts - the new class will in all other respects be a much more capable combat system.įor instance, it will generate three times as much electricity for on-board sensors and networks, it will be automated to eliminate the need for several hundred crew members, it will be able to support a third more sorties (flights) by its air wing each day, and it will incorporate numerous enhancements to bolster survivability against potential adversaries. The Navy has spent two decades preparing for that day by developing a new class of aircraft carriers called the Gerald R. They aren't just the biggest warships in history, they are also the signature weapon system of American military power.īut the first Nimitz carrier went to sea in 1975, and even though the sturdy vessels stay in service for 50 years, the time is fast approaching when the oldest ones will need to be retired. Each of the ten Nimitz-class carriers in the current fleet displaces nearly 100,000 tons of water and sports over four acres of deck space from which five dozen aircraft can operate. The United States is the only country that operates a fleet of large-deck, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers - "supercarriers" as they are sometimes called.
0 kommentar(er)
