The Nuclear Cruiser Debate
A new proposal to make the Navy less dependent on fossil fuels. From the Daily Press:
Northrop Grumman Newport News, a longtime builder of aircraft carriers and submarines, may have a chance in coming years to expand its business to include surface combatants.The Navy has begun studying the idea of designing the next generation of cruisers as nuclear-powered ships, with a preliminary recommendation expected by year's end.Any decision to go nuclear on cruisers could open up a new line of work for Newport News, one of only two nuclear-capable shipyards in the country...
The design and construction for the future cruiser - a multi-mission warship that fires Tomahawk cruise missiles - remain years away. The first new cruiser is not scheduled to get under construction until 2011.But Congress has expressed growing interest in making the ship nuclear, as lawmakers try to make the military less dependent on oil in an age of terrorism.
But can we afford it? Not likely:
Building a cruiser with a nuclear power plant could add $600 million to $800 million to the price of the ship, Navy officials testified.
Our last nuclear cruisers were the Virginia and California classes. The first, above, is the USS Long Beach. In the 1970's the Congress ordered all future carrier escorts to be nuclear powered, obviously to little good.
Northrop Grumman Newport News, a longtime builder of aircraft carriers and submarines, may have a chance in coming years to expand its business to include surface combatants.The Navy has begun studying the idea of designing the next generation of cruisers as nuclear-powered ships, with a preliminary recommendation expected by year's end.Any decision to go nuclear on cruisers could open up a new line of work for Newport News, one of only two nuclear-capable shipyards in the country...
The design and construction for the future cruiser - a multi-mission warship that fires Tomahawk cruise missiles - remain years away. The first new cruiser is not scheduled to get under construction until 2011.But Congress has expressed growing interest in making the ship nuclear, as lawmakers try to make the military less dependent on oil in an age of terrorism.
But can we afford it? Not likely:
Building a cruiser with a nuclear power plant could add $600 million to $800 million to the price of the ship, Navy officials testified.
Our last nuclear cruisers were the Virginia and California classes. The first, above, is the USS Long Beach. In the 1970's the Congress ordered all future carrier escorts to be nuclear powered, obviously to little good.
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