[jimtorr]

When the contract for CVN 77 was let, there was talk of incorporating some of the design features of the next series of carriers. Features such as stealthy superstructure, greatly increased automation and smaller crew.

[finnigan2]

"When the contract for CVN 77 was let, there was talk of incorporating some of the design features of the next series of carriers."

- Why are shipyards still building these monster carriers for future operations when they have the tri- service Raptor aircraft in final testing which has VTOL technology built in? Such an aircraft would make those long flight decks virtually obsolete while shrinking the size of the carrier and increasing it's aircraft carrying capacity.

[Laz711]

From what I gathered while I was still in the Navy, the 77 is going to be a hybrid between the Nimitz class and the new CVN-X class carrier....stuff like magnetic catapults, new reactor systems, and other things to minimize maintenance and therefore crew requirememts, just like the new class of SSNs.