Nuclear aircraft carriers in the US Navy: most expensive warships ever

What you need to know: Modern aircraft carriers, such as the U.S. Navy’s Gerald R. Ford class, cost approximately $13 billion each due to their enormous complexity and advanced technology. These ships are essentially floating cities, capable of housing up to 5,000 sailors and capable of projecting air power worldwide.

-They feature rugged steel construction, nuclear reactors that can operate for decades without refueling, and advanced systems like the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) for smoother and more efficient aircraft launches.

-The aircraft carriers serve as mobile airfields, eliminating the need for foreign bases and providing unparalleled flexibility in military operations. Their high costs reflect the strategic advantage and technological marvel they represent.

Why Aircraft Carriers Cost Billions: A Look Inside the World’s Most Advanced Warships

The price of a modern aircraft carrier is astronomical. America’s newest aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, costs $13 billion per unit. And so far, the entire Ford program has cost taxpayers $120 billion. That’s a lot of money for a boat. But of course the modern aircraft carrier is not just any boat; a modern aircraft carrier is a floating city with a variety of complicated subsystems, capable of projecting air power around the world.

Naval aircraft carriers: you get what you pay for

Aircraft carriers confer a degree of prestige on their owners. Like a Ferrari or a McLaren, which few can afford. Owning an aircraft carrier is too expensive for most countries. Many countries on earth do not have an annual GDP greater than the price of one Ford class airline. But a Ferrari or a McLaren can’t do much other than get the driver from point A to point B – which can be accomplished just as easily in a Hyundai or a Ford. Owning an aircraft carrier unlocks unique abilities that cannot be achieved with a battleship or a destroyer. An aircraft carrier sails and launches aircraft, essentially serving as a mobile airfield – an invaluable tool for projecting power onto distant shores.

The main alternative to launching aircraft from distant countries is owning airfields on foreign territory. Again, most countries do not have an airport on foreign territory. And again, the US is an exception – with an extensive network of foreign military installations. Yet foreign military installations are fixed and inflexible – invaluable in a fixed conflict, with defined borders. But in enforcing a foreign policy that requires such diverse and sometimes erratic power projection needs; an aircraft carrier comes in handy.

Loaded with new technology

To say that an aircraft carrier is a floating city is not an exaggeration. An aircraft carrier can accommodate more than 5,000 sailors at a time. So the aircraft carrier must be equipped to house, feed, clean and entertain those 5,000 sailors. Accordingly, an aircraft carrier is equipped with multiple galleys and mess halls. An aircraft carrier must be able to provide as many as 18,000 meals per day. Providing meals is not necessarily a new technology. But the meal service speaks to the scale and complexity of running – and paying for – a modern aircraft carrier.

All meals and all sailors are really about one thing: projecting air power. The entire city/airline exists to project air power. And to project air power, the aircraft carrier has a unique structure and a unique set of systems.

To support flight operations, an aircraft carrier’s hull is “constructed from extremely strong steel plates several inches thick,” reports How Stuff Works. “This heavy body provides highly effective protection against fire and battle damage.”

For structural support (and again, to support flight operations), the aircraft carrier is made of “three horizontal structures that extend across the entire hull: the keel (the iron spine at the bottom of the ship), the flight deck, and the hangar deck. .” Aircraft are stored on the hangar deck. Planes are launched from the cockpit. So the entire structure of the boat is built around storing and launching aircraft.

“The hull section below the waterline is rounded and relatively narrow, while the section above the water extends to form the wide cockpit space,” explains How Stuff Works. “The lower part of the ship has a double bottom, which is pretty much what it sounds like – there are two layers of steel plate: the bottom plate of the ship and another layer above it… the double bottom provides extra protection against torpedoes or accidents at sea. ”

To launch aircraft, aircraft carriers use catapults, which pull an aircraft over the flight deck and launch the aircraft from the front of the boat. Traditionally, aircraft carriers used steam-powered catapults. The still operating Nimitz class airlines still rely on steam catapults. But the advanced Ford class uses a newly developed Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS). The EMALS uses a linear induction motor, which generates electric currents to create magnetic fields. The magnetic fields pull the plane across the deck. The EMALS (which was expensive to research and develop) is expected to accelerate aircraft more smoothly than the now outdated steam catapults.

Launching aircraft is a function of an aircraft carrier. Landing planes is a different story. Airplanes land on aircraft carriers with a tail hook, which catches wires laid along the flight deck. It is a relatively low-tech system that proves effective.

And the whole thing is powered by a nuclear reactor. The advantage of a nuclear reactor is that it allows the aircraft carrier to operate indefinitely – decades if necessary – without the need for refueling.

In short, aircraft carriers are expensive because they are technological marvels.

About the Author: Harrison Kass

Harrison Kass is a defense and national security writer with more than 1,000 articles on issues relating to global affairs. Harrison, a lawyer, pilot, guitarist and minor professional hockey player, joined the United States Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University.

All images are Creative Commons.