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June 26, 2005
The first new aircraft carrier design of the 21st century, the American CVN 21, is now expected to cost nearly $14 billion. About 40 percent of that is for designing the first ship of the class, so the actual cost of first ship (CVN 21) itself will be some $9 billion. Against this, the navy expects to reduce the carriers lifetime operating expenses by several billion dollars because of greatly reduced crew size. Compared to the current Nimitz class carriers (which cost over $5 billion each to built), the CVN 21s will feel, well, kind of empty. Lots more automation, computer networking and robots. CVN 21 doesnt start building until 2008, and wont go to sea until about 2014. By that time, many of the warplanes operating off the carrier will be robotic. By 2014, even more of the crew will be replaced by robots. The CVN 21 will be about the same size as current carriers, but will about half as many sailors on board.
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