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[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

   9-3-95. NYPaper:


   "Aircraft Carrier May Give Way To Missile Ship."

      The aircraft carrier may soon be shoved off center stage
      by a new "arsenal ship" that would be able to rain 500
      missiles within a matter of minutes on targets hundreds
      of miles away, without risking pilots' lives. A carrier
      costs $4.5 billion to build and $440 million a year to
      operate. The new ship, essentially a floating missile
      barge, might cost only $500 million and just tens of
      millions a year to run. The new ship would fire Tomahawk
      cruise missiles, long-range artillery shells or rocket
      barrages against ammunition dumps, command posts and
      artillery. It could prove particularly valuable in the
      early stages of a crisis, before ground troops were in
      place. It would travel with other ships and submarines
      for protection, and target information would be provided
      by other vessels, reconnaissance aircraft, pilotless
      drones or ground spotters. The 825-foot ship might
      require fewer than 20 people to operate, compared with
      the 5,000 aboard a 1,040-foot carrier.


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