NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Dimming prospects that the Pentagon will spend more than $10 billion to develop the futuristic CVNX aircraft carrier are increasing the odds that the Navy will, instead, opt to build up to two more Nimitz-class carriers at Northrop Grumman Newport News.
That kind of change in naval strategy now considered likely by leading defense analysts would have a tremendous effect at the local shipyard, the only U.S. site capable of building the large-deck nuclear-powered ships.
Any deal to follow the CVN-77, now being built, with one or two more Nimitz-class carriers would be welcome news for the thousands of waterfront workers employed by such projects. But the Navy, Northrop and other contractors had planned on a host of engineering and design improvements for the CVNX. Some, if not most, of that work could be scrapped if the Navy opted for more Nimitz-class hulls. But the Navy has plans to make some technological improvements within the Nimitz-class carriers.
The Navy has previously shown its willingness to cancel significant carrier advancements in favor of saving money, killing the proposed $450 million new warfare system for the CVN-77. Now, leading industry-watchers in Washington say, the CVNX is heading for the same end.
Officially, Navy brass and Northrop officials refuse to declare the CNVX doomed. Northrop insists that the project will ultimately save time and taxpayer dollars.
"We disagree that CVNX is too expensive," Northrop Grumman Newport News spokeswoman Jerri Fuller Dickseski said. "The recurring cost of CVNX1 is less expensive in terms of both man-hours and costs than another Nimitz-class repeat ship built in the same year because we have designed the ship to be simpler and more producible."
Northrop asserts that the initial price tag includes one-time costs associated with any new ship design. The effect of those nonrecurring expenses is lessened as the yard produces more versions of the new-generation carrier.
But questions about the need for the high-cost CVNX in the Navy's future are being raised in the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is expected to make a call on the program by Thanksgiving.
Changing threat
Top Pentagon observers say, however, that the next-generation carrier has lost favor as the nature of America's enemies has changed from superpowers to decentralized terrorist networks.
