The CVX has been sunk. She was to have been the U.S. Navy's next-generation aircraft carrier, a major departure from the Nimitz (CVN-68)-class design. As lead ship for a new class, the CVX was to have been funded in fiscal year 2006 and join the fleet about 2013.
The CVX concept promised a more efficient warship, capable of handling advanced aircraft at a faster operating cycle, lower detection signatures (and hence enhanced survivability), decreased manning requirements, and significantly lower construction and operating costs. These and other advanced concepts were being studied at the Carrier Innovation Center of Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia. The Center also was examining nonnuclear propulsion concepts for the ship, primarily gas turbines.
Eight carriers of the Nimitz class have been completed by Newport News Shipbuilding; the ninth, the Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), is under construction; and the tenth and final ship of the class, the CVN-77, was planned for funding in fiscal year 2002, with completion in 2008.
The Nimitz evolved from the first "super carrier," the United States (CVA-58), which was laid down—and canceled—in April 1949, almost 50 years ago. Each super carrier built since then has been an improvement over its predecessors, an evolutionary development. But the CVX, according to the Navy's Director of Air Warfare, was being designed on a "clean sheet of paper." It would
feature improved characteristics in selected areas, such as launch and recovery equipment, flight deck layout, C4I [command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence] systems, information networks, and propulsion systems [and] features that will make them more affordable to operate.
This "entirely new class" has been canceled because of funding shortfalls. Although the Navy never announced a total development and design-cost for CVX, the fiscal year 1999 defense program indicated just more than $1 billion in development costs. The program had passed development Milestone 0 in March 1996 but was never adequately funded by the Navy. Despite this situation, Navy leaders continued to promote the concept of a clean-sheet design. Indeed, this stance continued even after Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jay Johnson announced that the CVX definitely would have nuclear propulsion.
Admiral Johnson's decision was based on a draft study, "CVX Feasibility," prepared by the Naval Research Advisory Committee (NRAC) in 1997. The report stated that "for maximum availability, the ship should have a nuclear power plant." But the Navy's powerful nuclear propulsion community, led by Admiral Frank (Skip) Bowman, already saw nuclear power as a given for the CVX, according to a top defense writer. According to Admiral Bowman, "Without this endurance and flexibility [provided by nuclear-propelled, carriers], we would be hard put to do what we are doing today."
Despite acquiescence to the nuclear propulsion community, the CVX continued to be underfunded. Then, this spring, Congress cut almost $100 million from its development. Subsequently, a Navy official was reported as saying, "We just cannot afford the investment needed to achieve the hoped-for long-term savings."
Thus, the CVX has been scuttled. The next carrier, the unnamed CVN-77, has been described by the Navy as a "transition" between the Nimitz and the CVX, incorporating new technologies resulting from research and development for the CVX. Now that ship, too, will be a further improvement on the Nimitz design, with few of the features that were being considered for the CVX. Subsequent large carriers—if built—will be similar.
The Navy thus has lost the chance to develop a new carrier design that it hoped would provide a more efficient warship and have significantly lower procurement and life-cycle costs.