Outside View // 1 decade ago
U.S. carriers, combat aircraft face looming financial costs crisis
On Jan. 10, 2009, the George Herbert Walker Bush, or CVN 77, the last Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, was commissioned. This 78,000-ton nuclear-powered ship, built by Northrop Grumman, with all its airplanes and helicopters and its complement of cruisers, frigates and all the rest that make up a carrier group, is the finest product of U.S. technology, while embodying U.S. power. But nuclear-powered supercarriers and their supporting battle groups do not come cheap.