How Fast Could America Build More Aircraft Carriers? - The National Interest Online (blog)
On Saturday, Newport News Shipbuilding will hold a keel-laying ceremony for USS John F. Kennedy , the second of the Gerald Ford -class carriers. About five more super-carriers, though over time, as he was careful to stress at a Republican Party forum in South Carolina on Monday. Cutting the carrier fleet has occupied most of that sort of discussion recently, but let’s also consider how feasible expanding it might be. Building a bunch more Fords would take decades, but the Navy could get some smaller ships much more quickly. Between 1968 and 2009, Newport News built, and the Navy commissioned, ten Nimitz -class carriers—about one every four years. The Navy currently buys one every five years. Just about everyone at Huntington Ingalls Industries would be delighted to return to the faster building rate, but that’s still just an extra ship every twenty years. At that pace, the Navy would graduate back from 10 to 15 carriers, Fords or follow-ons, in about a century. To further illustrate the challenge of what Kasich is recommending, consider doubling the current rate of super-carrier construction. Either way, super-carriers aren’t Liberty Ships, so they can only be built so fast. Source: nationalinterest.org
