In this article:
The centerpiece of America’s Naval forces
Aircraft carriers are the centerpiece of America’s Naval forces – the most adaptable and survivable airfields in the world. On any given day, Sailors aboard an aircraft carrier and its air wing come to the fight trained and equipped across a full range of missions. They are ready to control the sea, conduct strikes, and maneuver across the electromagnetic spectrum and cyberspace. No other naval force fields a commensurate range and depth of combat capabilities.
Today the US Navy operates 11 carriers, all nuclear-powered: ten 101,000-ton, 1,092 ft long Nimitz class carriers and Gerald R. Ford (the lead of the class Gerald R. Ford) 110,000-ton, 1,106 ft long carrier.
Could an American Ally order a brand-new Nimitz / Ford-class aircraft carrier?
If an American ally wanted to order a brand-new Nimitz / Ford-class aircraft carrier, could it get one?
Andy Burns, former US Navy Surface Warfare Officer (SWO), explains on Quora;
‘Not really. For one thing, no more Nimitz-class are being built. The only US carrier shipyard, Newport News, is now building the Gerald Ford-class.
‘Could an ally order a Ford-class of their own? It would be fantastically expensive, politically and logistically complicated, and definitely not worth the costs. It would seriously slow down production of US carriers (NNSY can basically only build one at a time). The ally’s government would have to explain to their own people why they’re paying thousands of American skilled workers to build a ship instead of their own – and if they’re rich enough to buy a supercarrier and have a big enough Navy to need one, they definitely have their own shipbuilding industry.
‘If, for whatever reason, an ally decided they wanted a made-in-the-USA aircraft carrier, a more practical solution would probably be for them to buy a boat that was just about to go into RCOH.
‘The Refueling and Complex Overhaul is the big overhaul a carrier gets midway through its 50-year service life. It’s drydocked, the reactor is refueled, and the Boat is stripped and gutted and refitted. Takes about 5 years, but at the end of it, it’s a nearly good-as-new Boat.
‘It would still be expensive and politically complicated and probably still not practical, but more realistic than buying a Boat new.
The “Show Stopper”
‘Would an allied nation be “allowed” to buy an aircraft carrier from a US yard? That wouldn’t be the “show stopper” to such a sale. I’m sure Congress, the Navy, and Newport News Shipyard would be absolutely delighted to get the business; it would be an enormous investment and almost all benefit would be to the US.
‘NNSY just does not have the excess capacity to build additional carriers. The shipbuilding plan they have is programmed decades out. At any one time they’re fitting out one carrier, building the modules for a second, and doing the long-lead fabrication for a third, plus performing heavy overhaul/RCOH work on a fourth.
‘So, building additional carriers would require an absolutely colossal investment in shipyard infrastructure, not least a second dry dock (and the one NNSY has now is the largest in the world). Then there’s the finding and hiring of thousands of skilled tradesmen, some of which have very esoteric and expensive specialties (nuke-certified welders, for example). Most or all of that cost would be passed on to the customer country, driving the per-unit cost through the roof.
‘Very quickly the question for the customer country becomes, if we’re buying all this infrastructure and making decades of work for specialists, artisans, and skilled tradesmen…why not just do it for ourselves and keep the benefits at home?
‘There’s a lot more to building a carrier than just a big flat-topped ship, as the British, Chinese, and Indians are finding out as they build/rebuild their own carrier-construction capabilities.
‘Yes, during WWII the US built literally dozens of Fleet carriers and hundreds of smaller escort (“Jeep”) carriers for the USN and allies.
Here’s why an American Ally order a brand-new Nimitz / Ford-class aircraft carrier
‘Those were much smaller ships and could be built in several, existing shipyards. That’s not the case anymore.
‘The limiting factor is the drydock. NNSY Drydock One is the largest in the world. You need a drydock for hull module assembly, which takes up roughly half the total construction time. Other work, such as module fabrication, and fitting out after float-out, happens outside the drydock, as seen in the pictures above.
‘So, if an ally – say, Australia or Canada – wanted a Ford-class of their own, their order would have to be sequenced in to the existing builds of US carriers. Right now, that’s planned out years in advance, and as a new carrier is commissioned, the oldest is nearly-simultaneously decommissioned. For example, when John F Kennedy (CVN-79) enters service, Nimitz (CVN-68) will decommission. Spacing out the US builds would mean stretching out our oldest carriers even further (which would require unplanned and expensive yard maintenance periods) or ‘gapping’ our carrier force, which has a serious ripple effect on operations, training, maintenance, and budgets all over the Navy.
‘It’s one of those ideas that’s only feasible if both the US and the putative purchasing county have infinite-money cheat codes, so – never going to happen.’
Burns concludes;
‘Which brings me back to the ally buying a carrier going into RCOH. Offering to pay for RCOH and take possession after completion would get the ally a “good as new” carrier with at least 25 years of sailing to it, without impacting as severely NNSY’s build plan. Plus, it would free up the USN’s budget to either overhaul another Boat early, or possibly get the next Ford-class built a budget year or so earlier. It’s still a reeeal big stretch, but less-impossible.’
Photo credit: U.S. Navy
