Thursday, August 02, 2007

Thoughts on nuclear ships

Given the testimony of some senior people in the Navy, the Navy seems opposed to the idea of nuclear power on a cruiser. So why don't they do a little exercise? How did the Navy estimate fuel costs in the last carrier AoA? Did actual fuel prices in the last 10 years validate those assumptions? If not, how different would the answer be if they had a crystal ball and could have assumed the actual price of fuel today? Why aren't they using the same relative change in fuel price to look at what's going to happen between now and when they build this next generation cruiser they're talking about? The answer might be a little more blaringly obvious if they did.