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$5B projected. Actual results may vary, but this can be taken as the bottom-most figure you'll ever see in conjunction with this vessel. What worries me is, will it be too expensive to risk in combat?

It's my tax $$ well spent. I'll take 2.

Any combat, it will be in the thick of it.

I presume so too. Puts me in mind of John Paul Jones - "I will require a fast ship, for I intend to go in Harm's way." Did, too...

It will be launched at about the same time as the two new UK carriers, which are estimated to cost £3.9Bn between them, which translates to approx $7bn. At only $3.5Bn each, they must be a bargain!

They must come with fewer amenities.

Oh yeah! They forgot to include the cost of the aircraft!

LOL! Yeah, but the reality is the attached air wings are separate entities, not ship's company, and transfer between carrier groups as needed. At least in the USN; RN may do it differently.

I think that the RN are the same as the USN: both are expected to operatate the Joint Strike Aircraft I believe. Hope its ready by then!

Yes, I hope both are ready by then, but won't expect it. That's a lot of ship to build, and all that new technology will surely complicate construction.

Judging by recent events in the UK, the computer systems will be outdated when they come to install them, even if the ships are ready. I suppose that this will ensure that some businesses are kept going, but at what cost!

A similar analogy might be that its akin to painting the Forth Bridge (which I can see from my lounge windows, says he smugly!), once its finished, they have to start all over again....

Are the new UK carriers nuke too?

No, they are not nuke:

"The MoD decided not to use nuclear propulsion due to its high costs.^[17] The carrier's propulsion system will be Integrated Full Electric Propulsion (IFEP) with Rolls-Royce Marine Trent MT30 36 MW gas turbine generator units."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_class_aircraft_carrier

...like I said, they won't be able to afford the fuel to power them!

Hum, let's see,

We could buy more than 50 new aircraft carriers for what it's going to cost us to bail out the mismanaged and corrupt banks.....

Typically, any new ship of the U.S. Navy is obsolete when it is commisioned into service. Systems that are planned for any new ship, are anywhere from 5 to 7 year old technology. This old technology has to be utilized because it has already been funded into the cost. It is only after the ship has been in service, that it receives "shipalts", whose purpose it is to update those obsolete systems. Older ships are more up to date than the just commisioned ship.

'Obsolete' is defined as 'no longer in use, or no longer useful' or 'of a style no longer current'

It doesn't make much sense to call equipment built into newly commissioned ships obsolete because it is 5 to 7 years old.

most 'shipalts' are not changes of old oobsolete equipment for new technology, rather minor material changes and numerous proceedural changes.

Why build one, when you can have 2 a twice the price?

Very interesting, the rendering shows the island/superstructure placed well aft, thereby increasing the "pucker factor".

The linear motor concept is intriguing, there was a transistion from steam to hydraulic and back to steam, this electromagnetic system should allow more control.

Are they going to use regenrative systems for the arresting gear?

The reduction of 1200 personnel, would have left the ship I was on empty.

"The reduction of 1200 personnel, would have left the ship I was on empty."

The last ship I was on was an LPH. A reduction that size would have left it twice as empty as yours... Welcome aboard here!

I'm retired from Northrop Grumman, but I also spent 20 years as a tech rep on the USS Midway. The Midway was 1930's technology. Comparing that with the Gerald R. Ford is like comparing the USS Constitution to the Midway.

I remember a movie, (or maybe it was the Twilight Zone) where a modern aircraft carrier traveled back in time to just before the strike on Pearl Harbor. The carrier's capabilities would have been able to stop every plane before the first Japanese bomb was dropped. The dilemma was weather to interfere with history. The carrier slipped forward in time before the attack. That was a 45 year jump in carrier technology. What will the changes be like in the next tech jump?