
Why There Are So Few Aircraft Carriers in the WorldĪircraft carriers are extremely expensive to build and require additional naval ships to properly function in combat.Īircraft carriers have very high costs, ranging from research and development to construction and maintenance costs, which add up to into the billions of dollars. The US has 10 Nimitz class aircraft carriers and 1 Ford class carrier. USA: The United States has 11 aircraft carriers, the largest of any country in the world.
UK: The UK has 2 aircraft carriers – The HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. Thailand: Thailand has 1 aircraft carrier – The HTMS Chakri Naruebet. Spain: Spain has 1 aircraft carrier – The Juan Carlos I. Russia: Russia has 1 aircraft carrier – The Admiral Kuznestsov. Japan: Japan has 2 aircraft carriers – The JS Izumo and the JS Kaga. Italy: Italy has 2 aircraft carriers – The Cavour and the Giuseppe Garibaldi. India: India has 1 aircraft carrier – The INS Vikramaditya. France: France has 1 aircraft carrier: – The Charles de Gaulle. China: China has 2 aircraft carriers – Lioning and Shandong. Brazil: Brazil has 1 aircraft carrier – the Atlântico. In 2023, there are 25 total active aircraft carriers in the world, used by 11 countries. The Italian Navy’s Giuseppe Garibaldi is the world’s smallest aircraft carrier. Once fully loaded, it has a total displacement of 100,000 tonnes. The USS Gerald Ford is the world’s largest aircraft carrier. The world’s cheapest aircraft carrier is the HTMS Chakri Naruebet, which cost the Thai Navy approximately $336 million to build. The cost of the entire program for building this aircraft, including research and development costs, likely reached close to $37 billion. The Congressional Research Service estimates the aircraft carrier costs $13.3 billion, which makes it the most expensive aircraft carrier to date, and likely the most expensive ship ever constructed. The USS Gerald R.Ford, which is the first Ford-class aircraft carrier, is the most expensive aircraft carrier ever built. The maintenance cost of aircraft carriers is not publicly disclosed, but it likely varies depending on the carrier’s size and complexity. The speculative maintenance costs of aircraft carriers are between $2 to $4 billion per 32 month maintenance cycle. This results in an average daily operational cost of between $6 million to $8 million, depending on the carrier’s configuration and number of military personnel.
The average annual operating cost of an aircraft carrier is $1.18 billion.
The manufacturing cost varies by each country, since countries that manufacture fewer aircraft carriers have higher research costs than those that manufacture more carriers.įor example, a US Nimitz Class carrier costs up to $9.7 billion while a Russian aircraft carrier costs close to half a trillion rubles or $6.8 billion according to an interview from Vladimir Pospelov, who is a member of the Russian board of military industrial commission. The exact cost of building an aircraft carrier depends on the carrier’s intended role, size, type, and the country manufacturing it. The average aircraft carrier costs between $5 billion to $10 billion to build. How Much an Aircraft Carrier Costs Cost to Build The United States has the most aircraft carriers in the world -11 of the world’s 25 aircraft carriers.Īircraft carrier costs are also compounded because of how they’re used in combat.Īircraft carriers need other battleships to protect them during engagement while aircraft fly from the carriers.Īs a result, aircraft carriers are extremely costly to design, build, and effectively use. They also easily cost at least $1 billion to maintain every year.Īircraft carriers are virtually the most expensive military ships, and only the world’s most developed militaries build them. An aircraft carrier costs several billions of dollars to design and construct.