Future
Nimitz-class carriers were designed to have a 50-year service life. At the end of the service life, ships will be decommissioned. This process will first take place on Nimitz and is estimated to cost from $750 to $900 million. This compares with an estimate of $53 million for a conventionally powered carrier. Most of the difference in cost is attributed to the deactivation of the nuclear power plants and safe removal of radioactive material and other contaminated equipment. A new class of carriers, the Gerald R. Ford class, is being constructed to replace previous vessels after decommissioning. Ten of these are expected, and the first will enter service in 2015 to replace USS Enterprise. The rest of these new carriers are to replace the oldest Nimitz ships as they reach the end of their service life. The new carriers will have a similar design to Bush (using an almost identical hull shape) but will also have further technological and structural improvements.
Read more about this topic: Nimitz-class Aircraft Carrier
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“For the wrong that needs resistance,
For the future in the distance,
And the good that I can do.”
—George Linnaeus Banks (1821–1881)
“The future is made of the same stuff as the present.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“I imagine, on the benches of an assembly, the most intrepid of thinkers, a brilliant mind, one of those men who, when they ascend the tribune, feel it beneath them like the tripod of the oracle, suddenly grow in stature and become colossal, surpass by a head the massive appearances that mask reality, and see clearly the future over the high, frowning wall of the present.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)