Aircraft carrier $$$$
 

Countries that have carriers: 1 or 2
China: 1 (first rolls out this week)
USA: 11

I think I found where our trillion dollar debt went. Who should I contact?

Ours are huge compared to other country's too. The Nimitz class is over 100,000 tons. The next biggest is like 40,000.

Funny. I just caught that article about the aircraft carrier China has and was gonna post about it.

Your off on your stats. There isn't "one or two countries" that has air craft carriers. US, UK, Russia, France, India, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Thailand.... (Thailand?)

Now you can say that the US has more carriers than all other nations combined... And two more being built. And our carriers aren't cheap!

100,000 tons WOW:thumbsup

that's a whole lotta rosey

Wow... there's is so small the take off side has a rather large ramp for more lift.

here's all the country info on air craft carriers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ers_by_country

countries ready for war need to have it

Canada has 3? wow - wait all are decommissioned LOL

we should decommission 1/2 of those & cancel the upcoming *cheaper* gerald ford class

the uk has some.

Our carriers have three Hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are Nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to Shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to Feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand Gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a Dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; that are all over this world during peace time and natural disasters helping the many that can't help themselves.

and yet they still cost over 1 million a day to keep running (EACH)

Our last Aircraft Carrier was decommissioned earlier this year and you can 'Buy It Now' happy bidding!

Sorry appears to be out of stock :thumbsup

No no, I meant that those countries only have 1 or 2 carriers each. US is the only country that has 11 carriers

Some = 1

Thailand's Carrier next too the Kittyhawk...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Hawk_size.JPEG

I just bought it at the end of last week :)

The F-35: A Weapon That Costs More Than Australia

The U.S. will ultimately spend $1 trillion for these fighter planes. Where's the outrage over Washington's culture of waste?

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/...stralia/72454/


http://www.globalfirepower.com/

Overkill...

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/9...10810at311.png

that project is being re-assessed last i read and unlikely to move forward. 50% cost overruns and all.

?We want it, but it has to be affordable,? Ashton Carter, the Pentagon?s top weapons buyer, told the Senate Armed Services committee. ?At the moment in its projections, it?s not.?

NO SHIT, ya don't say? We all "Want" something, affording it is a different story. And seeing the current economic a look, I think "need" is something these officials need to add to their vocabulary, and remove "want" - they are so used to just using our money to buy whatever the hell they want, even if we don't need it (or will never need it).

My daughter served on the USS Ronald Reagan, 4 ft longer than the Bush. Biggest baddest war ship on the planet.

in 2008

June 25, USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group and USNS Safeguard (T-ARS 50) recently arrived off the coast of Philippines to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to victims of the Typhoon Fengshen and to help in salvage operations for the ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars. The 24,000-tonne ferry was carrying 864 passengers and crew when it sank Saturday off Sibuyan Island, 300 kilometres south of Manila, at the height of a typhoon.

July 3, USS Ronald Reagan departed the Sulu Sea and the waters around the Philippine island of Panay, after assisting the Philippine government's humanitarian relief operation. Aircrews flew 332 sorties around Panay and delivered more than 519,000 pounds of much-needed supplies to typhoon victims.


My daughter got 2 humanitarian medals


this is the last of the big carriers as the missions has changed and the new carriers will not be near as big.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net..._5457240_n.jpg

that's my daughter on the lift, 8 from the right

And how often are they used to help the US people, and how often simply given to counties where people can't pay us back, and we should just let them die.

Sorry, humanitarian is nice, but it's also costs $1 million a day.

The $1 million per day running cost is mind-boggling!

$1 million per day, ok how much does 3 hospitals cost to run a day, what about one power plan, and a fresh water planet, an office building, some cafe's?

@Vendzilla may you daughter always be known as a hero, and a person who helped without question.

@camperjohn64, you bring up the ongoing question, if you look at the history of the ships, that's the part that mainly gets ignore all the time. $1M is a lot of money but watch the world when the US does not help? Remember the $hit storm that Clinton got when he said that it was not financially worth helping out in Darfur?

Yes, and, what he couldn't take some flack?

I bet if Clinton had said "ok, we help my setting up gas chambers for those that would like to leave their problems behind" do you really think they would have said "why thank you let's all get in"?

I'm a huge fan of aircraft carriers. (Not an expert, just a fan.) Aircraft carriers are amazing. It's everything all in one - can power a city, fight a war, mobile hospital, etc etc....

Yeah, that's right...

But... I think we should also include Amphibious Assault Ships - of which the US has nine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphibious_assault_ship

Stagger difference huh?

When we compare the numbers of air craft carriers we need to remember that some are huge, and some are small.

200 hospitals in the US can't do in Haiti what one Air Craft Carrier does. Meaning, if we need to support another country for two months after a disaster, the only thing that can do it is an aircraft carrier.

The chinese one is a refit of a Soviet one that was never finished... China plans on building 4 or 5 more over the next few years as well.

They fascinate me as well. A month ago I watched a National Geographic about carriers on Netflix. I was really excited to see it, but the whole episode was about the flight deck only. The flight deck is cool and all, but what I really want to see is the stuff that's under the deck. Hospital, water treatment, storage, kitchens, living quarters, stuff like that.

A city on the sea... what isn't cool about that? Okay, besides price.

Awesome... I can almost see her.

Who, said that we needed to support Haiti? I bet I could make a SINGLE ship that could support Haiti with enough gas chambers that they will never need our help again.

Support comes in many forms. Aid from the front, or a kick in the rear.

not sure if serious. i sure hope not.

The size of the boat is irrelevant its all about the motion on the ocean.

lol......

Have you watched Carrier? I watched it on Hulu. I loved it. We need to keep in mind that an aircraft carrier has 5k people on it, and most of them are under the age of 25. I have huge respect for the Navy, but I see a lot of immaturity.

Then again, I saw that in the Marines in infantry too.

We didn't need to support Haiti. We don't have to have air craft carriers at all.

However, when our government wants to accomplish something quickly, we have an aircraft carrier in nearly every area of the world standing by - be it for humanitarian reasons, military reasons, or just good will.

Just damn expensive.

Rochard, you just said it the best.

However, when our government wants to accomplish something quickly, we have an aircraft carrier in nearly every area of the world standing by - be it for humanitarian reasons, military reasons, or just good will.

Just damn expensive.

At least until the recent trend of trying to fight wars without killing people, our military strength had huge non-military advantages. When developed countries were willing to destroy each other, our ability to guarantee safety and victory in any conflict won us many loyal friends. Who would try to invade Canada when the US had their back? Even the smallest country was safe if they made sure to be good friends with the US. That has huge economic and political value. That tends to prevent wars from even starting and stabilize the planet, at least for countries who could be valuable allies of the sole super-power. If your county REALLY misbehaved, such as by invading your tiny neighbor, we could simply blow you off the face of the planet and that discouraged such aggression. Today, though, in a world where "we're not at war with their country, just their leaders," we can't afford billions of dollars for a new plane. We should keep in mind, though, that China very much wants to take over the advantages of being sole-superpower, replacing the United States. To the extent that we want to see freedom spread through the world rather than dictatorial communism, we must be ready to go toe to toe economically, politically, and militarily.

Judging by the numbers of military expenses I'd like to ask a Shrek question:
"Don't you think he's compensating for something?".. :)
There is your gazillion of dollars. While all you need is 10 nukes.