CVN-21 в 2007 году

Next-generation aircraft carrier on course for construction in 2007

December 20, 2002

WASHINGTON — The first in a series of ``next-generation'' aircraft carriers will be budgeted for construction beginning in 2007 and designed to accommodate an experimental electromagnetic ``rail gun'' and other innovative weapons, a senior defense official confirmed Thursday.

The carrier, now known as CVNX but soon to be redesignated CVN-21, will use automated systems to replace up to 800 crew members, the official said. It also will have a redesigned nuclear power plant able to generate roughly three times the electricity available on today's carriers.

The official's comments, delivered on condition of anonymity, provided the most detailed preview to date of the 2004 defense budget proposal the Bush administration will unveil early next year. That budget will include long-range plans to shift some $40 billion from current Navy programs to CVN-21 and other new ships, aircraft and weapons systems, the official said.

The official said the budget will demonstrate that all the service branches are responding to the administration's insistence that they embrace technologies that will make them more agile. In addition to the $40 billion to be redirected by the Navy, the Army will shift $20 billion to such systems over the next six years and the Air Force about $30 billion, the official said.

The 2004 defense budget is expected to top $380 billion, about $17 billion more than Congress and the administration provided for 2003.

The new carrier, with a pricetag estimated at about $10 billion, is to be the centerpiece of a reshaped fleet that also will include ``arsenal submarines'' armed with more than 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles and small, speedy ``littoral combat ships.'' The latter ships will be designed to attack shallow-water mines, diesel submarines and suicide boats like the one that blew a hole in the destroyer Cole in October 2000.

The fleet also might include a series of cargo vessels, pre-positioned near potential war zones, that could be outfitted with platforms that would permit them to launch special ``short-takeoff'' fighters and helicopters, the official suggested.

``The flexibility that may bring . . . to expeditionary warfare is just enormous,'' the official said. He singled out Adm. Vern Clark, the chief of naval operations, and Navy Secretary Gordon England for putting the service on a course to ``change the culture surrounding naval operations.''

To make room for the new ships and generate the cash needed to buy them, the Navy plans to retire more of today's destroyers, cruisers and submarines years ahead of schedule, the official said. The service has been struggling to maintain an overall fleet of just more than 300 ships, and Clark has suggested that the nation needs a fleet of 360 to 375 to meet its worldwide commitments.

It was unclear Thursday how many ship retirements will be accelerated and how far the fleet might shrink while the Navy buys replacements.

The official said the electromagnetic gun, which would use a series of magnets to speed a projectile down a rail and hurl it from a ship, will not be ready by the time construction of CVN-21 begins in 2007. But the new carrier and its successors will be designed with enough open spaces to accommodate the system and other futuristic weapons and the redesigned nuclear reactor will provide the electricity needed to power them, he suggested.

Such systems would fundamentally change carriers, giving them new means to strike targets ashore. The massive ships now operate as floating air bases and travel with battle groups of destroyers, cruisers and submarines that help defend the carrier and in turn are defended by its air power.

А я со своей колокольни:

au>a redesigned nuclear power plant able to generate roughly three times the electricity available on today's carriers.

Дык, как раз ничего сурьёзного. Равно как и railgun в итоге выльется в электромагнитную катапульту для самолётов.

au>also will include ``arsenal submarines'' armed with more than 150 Tomahawk

А вот это супер! Где там у Штатов враги, для которых нужны серии лодок по 150 топоров на каждой? Видимо только Китай.

au>The fleet also might include a series of cargo vessels, pre-positioned near potential war zones, that could be outfitted with platforms that would permit them to launch special ``short-takeoff'' fighters and helicopters, the official suggested.

Ха! Кто там утверждал, что имеют смысл только ааагромные авианосцы? Другое дело, что вспомогательные потому и вспомогательные, что под боком есть супер-дорогой, но "неустрашимый" дядечка.

au>``The flexibility that may bring . . . to expeditionary warfare is just enormous,''

Вот они основные моменты:
- океанская война на сегодня имеет экспедиционно-вылазочный характер со всеми вытекающими - скорость, автономность, большой боезапас и пр.
- доступная на сегодня гибкость комплектации кораблей современных проектов (пока что) избыточна.

au>To make room for the new ships and generate the cash needed to buy them, the Navy plans to retire more of today's destroyers, cruisers and submarines years ahead of schedule, the official said.

А наши трясутся - как можно последние океанские корабли, да в утиль. Можно - главное строить им смену.