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The Italian carrier cost 1.5 billion euros, carries 20-24 aircraft, and has a crew of 545.

The latest Nimitz-class, the George Bush, cost $6.2 billion, carries 90 aircraft, and has a crew of 3,200, plus an air wing crew of 2,480.

For the price and operating cost of a Nimitz, you can get at least four Cavour-class carriers, and get a lot more flexibility.

The Italian carrier cost 1.5 billion euros, carries 20-24 aircraft, and has a crew of 545.
The latest Nimitz-class, the George Bush, cost $6.2 billion, carries 90 aircraft, and has a crew of 3,200, plus an air wing crew of 2,480.
For the price and operating cost of a Nimitz, you can get at least four Cavour-class carriers, and get a lot more flexibility.

Sorry, but the Cavour-class boats cannot carry many kinds of fighters. You may have 4 boats instead of 1, but they are far more vulnerable... and each requires a fleet of support ships. The Nimitz-class ship requires only one group, not 4, costing far less.

Keep your Cavours. I'll take a smaller number of Nimitz carrier groups any day.

For the price and operating cost of a Nimitz, you can get at least four Cavour-class carriers, and get a lot more flexibility.

Actually, you get a lot less. This is something that has been reinforced over and over and over again in the big carrier vs. small carrier debate that has been going on since the 1920s.

The last time the flexibility of big decks vs small was reinforced was during the late 1990s intervention in Kosovo. The Brits showed up wanting to play with one of their Invincibles, and given the inherent limitations of airwing capability (limited types, limited capability types, need to replenish between strikes, etc) we had a VERY hard time integrating her airwing into the strike packages.

The F-35 is going to be a HUGE improvement over the Harrier, but it's not going to be anywhere near the "game changer" some suggest. The lift-fan in the center of the fuselage eats up an enormous amount of space that the other variants dedicate to fuel. Without dedicated tanker support (which the Harrier carriers can't provide from their own decks) the STOVL F-35 is a decidedly short-range platform. Then add onto that the limitations of helicopter-borne AEW&C and ...