New CVN 21 design: Northrop Grumman

CVN 21 Design

The mission of the CVN 21 Program is to conceptualize, design, build, test and deliver a state-of-the-art aircraft carrier that meets operational requirements of the United States Navy and results in specified reductions in acquisition costs, manning and weight while enhancing operational capabilities.

Northrop Grumman is designing the CVN 21 class using the most technologically advanced systems in the shipbuilding industry:

CATIA (Computer-Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application) - a software package that allows manufacturers to simulate all the industrial design processes, from the pre-project phase through detailed design, analysis, simulation, assembly and maintenance

CAVE (Computer-Aided Virtual Environment) - a 3D immersive environment tool for viewing certain areas of the CVN 21 CATIA product model and for refinement of the construction strategy

Innovations for the CVN 21 class include:

Enhanced flight deck with increased sortie rates

Redesigned island

New nuclear power plant

Allowance for future technologies

Improved weapons movement that will more than double the capacity to produce and deliver smart munitions over that of the Nimitz-class design

Reduced manning by 30 percent, which correspondingly increases deployment availability by 25 percent

The largest electrical power production of any ship in the U.S. Navy, greater than two and a half times the electrical power of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier

Design costs and new technology insertion are approximately $5.6 billion spread over the class