The United States Aircraft Carrier Fleet

The aircraft carrier is the ultimate expression of the ability for a nation to project military power globally. The United States operates 10 Nimitz class aircraft carriers. At a cost of $4.5 billion dollars each, the 10 carriers cost roughly $50 billion dollars to build and develop. Over the next 30 years the US Navy will move to to the Gerald R. Ford class aircraft carrier. Each is expected to cost $9 billion dollars. Assuming complete replacement, over $90 billion dollars will be spent to procure the next generation carriers. With a market cap of over $450 billion, Apple is worth more than the symbols of US military power projection a few times over.

(NOTE: This covers the cost of the carriers themselves. What makes them special are the crews and operational personnel, and that cannot be measured in dollars.)

-GYSC