In message , Fred J. McCall
writes
"Charles Talleyrand" wrote:
:Finally, I would be suprised if the cost of a CVN with airwing
:was dominated by
:the saleries of the crew.

Single biggest cost over the carrier's life.

: I've always assumed without evidence the cost was
:more in parts and mainenence and fuel (for the planes).

Multiply it out. Rough grab of 7,000 crew. Just paying them amounts
to over 1/4 billion dollars per year. Now add in the cost manning for
all of the shore establishment that helps with maintenance and
such....

To add some hard numbers I turned up a while ago...

Predicted lifecycle costs for the REAGAN are that over a fifty-year
service life she'll cost $21,300 million dollars (at constant 1998
value). This cost relates only to the ship, not to her embarked air
wing.

Of that, her initial procurement price is only $4,300 million, or 20% of
the lifecycle cost. Crewing and maintenance through her life account for
over two-thirds of the total cost of ownership ($9.3bn): routine
maintenance clocks at $5.2bn, SLEP for $2bn and disposal for half a
billion.

The airwing won't be cheap, but you see the costs you're up against.
(You also see why crew-reduction is getting popular)
--
When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
W S Churchill

Paul J. Adam MainBoxatjrwlynch[dot]demon{dot}co(.)uk