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CVN 21 - 21st Century Carrier
The CVN 21 began as the CVX, a new ship class that is the second and long-term part of the Navy's two-track strategy for aircraft carrier recapitalization. The Navy's vision for CVX is to develop a new class of aircraft carriers to significantly reduce total ownership cost and incorporate an architecture for change and flexibility, while maintaining the core capabilities of Naval aviation (high-volume firepower, survivability, sustainability and mobility) for the 21st Century and beyond. Achieving this vision will require significant design changes to incorporate advances in technology and to focus the design on enhanced affordability since little carrier research and development has been undertaken since the 1960's.