Thread: aircraft carier operational cost

Not only her crew, yet the support around her from being home ported and deployed. I would say in the dozens of millions each month. I'd say about half billion annually. Including personal. Which is not covered in operating costs.

Originally Posted by kamikaze

how much dose it cost to operate a aircraft carrier including her crew and air wings. also how much dose it cost/how long to refuel the carrier?

Interesting question that caused me to delve further into the subject than I initally thought I would:


According to Wikipedia (probably sourced from a USN Fact File and therefore understated):

Average Annual Operating Cost: US$160 million

The Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH) is a once-in-a-lifetime event for a Nimitz-class CVN, occuring during mid-life.

The new Ford-class carriers will not ever require a refueling, only the usual overhauls.

The RAND Corporation had this to say about RCOH:

An RCOH is an extremely difficult and complex project, perhaps the largest such single-system maintenance project anywhere in the U.S. military or perhaps even in U.S. industry.

Further, it is executed on the world’s most complex weapon system by several organizations that have overlapping roles.

Thus far, 2 of these has been completed in full (Nimitz and Eisenhower), with a 3rd in progress (Carl Vinson)

(These figures may not be exact, if anybody has anything more precise feel free to contribute)

Cost of the Nimitz RCOH was $2.2 billion and took 3 years
Cost of the Eisenhower RCOH was $2.5 billion and took 4.5 years
Cost of the Vinson RCOH is somewhere around $3.1 billion and will also take around 4.5 years

According to Defense Industry Daily: "The power units used to refuel a CVN during RCOH cost about $510 million in FY 2007 dollars."

Maddeningly it doesn't specify if this is per unit or a total. I'm guessing it's a total.
There is also no information on cost of installation of each unit.

Originally Posted by TopHatter

Interesting question that caused me to delve further into the subject than I initally thought I would:


According to Wikipedia (probably sourced from a USN Fact File and therefore understated):

Average Annual Operating Cost: US$160 million

The Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH) is a once-in-a-lifetime event for a Nimitz-class CVN, occuring during mid-life.

The new Ford-class carriers will not ever require a refueling, only the usual overhauls.

The RAND Corporation had this to say about RCOH:



Thus far, 2 of these has been completed in full (Nimitz and Eisenhower), with a 3rd in progress (Carl Vinson)

(These figures may not be exact, if anybody has anything more precise feel free to contribute)

Cost of the Nimitz RCOH was $2.2 billion and took 3 years
Cost of the Eisenhower RCOH was $2.5 billion and took 4.5 years
Cost of the Vinson RCOH is somewhere around $3.1 billion and will also take around 4.5 years

According to Defense Industry Daily: "The power units used to refuel a CVN during RCOH cost about $510 million in FY 2007 dollars."

Maddeningly it doesn't specify if this is per unit or a total. I'm guessing it's a total.
There is also no information on cost of installation of each unit.

Quite up on things my friend.

Originally Posted by Dreadnought

Quite up on things my friend.

Thanks, although I'm sure some of those figures are off. Still and all, gotta love the Internet

I learned far more about the Nimitz RCOH than I ever wanted to last night lol

Apparently it was a considerable 'learning experience' for all parties concerned.

Which is rather depressing, seeing as how RCOH, while new for the Nimitz-class, is hardly a new thing for the Navy and NNS.

Originally Posted by TopHatter

Thanks, although I'm sure some of those figures are off. Still and all, gotta love the Internet

I learned far more about the Nimitz RCOH than I ever wanted to last night lol

Apparently it was a considerable 'learning experience' for all parties concerned.

Which is rather depressing, seeing as how RCOH, while new for the Nimitz-class, is hardly a new thing for the Navy and NNS.

In fairness to the Navy and those involved, the Nimitz is significantly different from a submarine or from the Enterprise and other surface ships that have been refueled.

Very true:

CVN-65 Enterprise has 8 A2W Westinghouse reactors aboard.

CVN-68 Nimitz has 2 A4W Westinghouse reactors aboard.

Different animals all together.

With a price tag like that, why don't we just build a new carrier rather than overhaul the old one? Sell the old one on Ebay.

Originally Posted by Johnny W

In fairness to the Navy and those involved, the Nimitz is significantly different from a submarine or from the Enterprise and other surface ships that have been refueled.

Unquestionably different from an SSN or SSBN, but scale-wise, a supercarrier is a supercarrier and the problems described with the Nimitz RCOH had nothing to do with technological specifics or even generalities, rather far more to do with management and planning. Admittedly, a strike at NNS didn't help matters one bit.

In addition, and very tellingly, the "R" portion of the RCOH came off pretty much without a hitch (or even better)

According to RAND:

...the nuclear portion of the CVN 68 RCOH appears to have been accomplished within, or even below, the original contract cost.

Originally Posted by gunnut

With a price tag like that, why don't we just build a new carrier rather than overhaul the old one? Sell the old one on Ebay.

because a new carrier would be double that price, or more..

Originally Posted by dundonrl

because a new carrier would be double that price, or more..

Not to mention the construction time.