Navy names new aircraft carrier

[Avery Adams]

The Secretary of the Navy announce today that the Navy's newest aircraft carrier, CVN-78, shall be named USS Independence. The ship is scheduled for commissioning in 2013, and is now under construction in Newport News, Virginia. She shall be the lead ship in a new class of aircraft carriers, and shall symbolize the spirit of the American nation.

She shall be the sixth US Navy vessel to carry the name Independence. The first was a sloop, which served for two years during the American Revolution. The second Independence was the first ship-of-the-line commissioned in the United States Navy, and served for nearly a century (1814 to 1913). The third Independence was a cargo ship acquired during World War One, which (renamed) served as a troop transport during World War Two. The forth Independence was the lead ship in a class of light aircraft carriers built during World War Two and served until 1946. The last Independence was a Forrestal-class aircraft carrier, serving from 1959 to 1998.

[William Reynolds]

Secretary Savery,

If you would be so kind, do have any statistics or information about these new aircraft carriers? Specifically how they relate, in terms of size and capabilities and cost, to the Nimitz Class?

Please do not feel pressured to respond to this at once. However, when you do reply, unless you are strongly averse to releasing the information publicly, I am sure everyone is curious as to the makeup of the USS Independence.

Warm regards,
Representative William Reynolds
2nd District, Illinois

[Avery Adams]

The Independence-class will feature many advances over todays's Nimitz-class vessels.
- Moderately modernized Nimitz class design
- New and highly automated nuclear propulsion system; each reactor providing 25% more energy and three times the electrical output with half the manning.
- Electromagnetic aircraft launch and recovery systems (EMALS)
- Enhanced flight deck with increased sortie rates through "pit-stop" style operations
- Redesigned island; with reduced radar cross-section, integrated mast and radar, and an integrated electronic combat control system
- Allowance for future technologies "plug-ins"
- Improved weapons movement that will more than double the capacity to produce and deliver smart munitions over that of the Nimitz-class design
- Reduced manning by 30 percent through cruise-ship style automation, which correspondingly increases deployment availability by 25 percent
- The largest electrical power production of any ship in the U.S. Navy, greater than two and a half times the electrical power of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier
- First ship designed to operate UCAVs (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles), in addition to a normal Carrier Air Wing

The first vessel will have about half these capabilities fully developed, but is designed to be easily upgraded when the technologies are matured and introduced in the second vessel (CVN-79), scheduled for delivery in 2018.

These vessels will be similar in size to the Nimitz-class; design and new technology development costs are estimated at approximately $5.6 billion (not including procurement and backfitting). Later Nimitz-class vessels would be upgraded with some of these technologies during their major mid-life overhauls.



(OOC: My character is Avery Adams, Secretary of Defense)