Comparative price of military expenses to overall economy.

WLBjork wrote:That decision cost us a war, several ships and a lot of lives. Even then, it took another 30 years to accept that we needed a fleet carrier...

kzt wrote:

WLBjork wrote:That decision cost us a war, several ships and a lot of lives. Even then, it took another 30 years to accept that we needed a fleet carrier...

And then, instead of buying a Nimitz, you'll spend more on a less capable design.

Theemile wrote:

kzt wrote:And then, instead of buying a Nimitz, you'll spend more on a less capable design.

The sad thing is Briton probably could have bought a Nimitz or Ford - or licensed the plans for a local build -at any point. The US Navy would be happy to have a compatable flattop in British hands, and as mentioned earlier, the US build schedule was artifically protracted since the 70s. It would have been easier (and cheaper for all involved) to have built 2 extra carriers during the last 40 years in the existing US yards.

munroburton wrote:Ah, but doing that would have deprived incumbent governments from the opportunity to buy votes with the creation/conservation of local shipbuilding jobs.

Tenshinai wrote:Consider though the fact that Japan has built pseudocarriers(helicopter destroyer, could easily handle VTOL and probably STOL), Italy and Spain have their own homemade baby carriers.
And most people probably don´t know it, but there´s 13 nations with carriers currently in comission, with Turkey 1 planned making it 14.

Spain has 1 and 1 in reserve, Italy has 2, South Korea has a helicopter carrier, India has 2 in operation 1 under construction and 5 on order(mix of fixed wing carriers(now that the Harriers are getting too old ) and some amphibious ships on order), Brazil has had at least 1 carrier operational since 1960(bought Vengeance from UK then to replace that, Foch from France), China has 1 to play with and 1 under construction, Japan has 2 Hyuga baby/heli CV operational and 1 Izumo undergoing trials and 1 under construction, Russia has 1 fullsized and 2+ planned, Thailand has 1(which is just barely kept operational though), France has 1 fullsize and 3 Mistral heli carriers/amphibious ship, Australia has 1 amphibious ship and another under construction though the ship is big enough to act as a fullsize carrier with STOL aircraft.
And of course there´s UK with their marvellous waste of money that is the new bigassed CV class that COULD have been built with catapult launch, but now instead is restricted to F-35s and helis just because some idiots tried(and failed ) to save money.
And USA with 20.

So, basically if someone really wants to own a "big toy", it can usually be done, like how Thailand keeps its CV operational to a very questionable degree, but it has still been highly useful several times. But building on your own isn´t entirely easy(and can get really expensive), but can still usually be done as long as someone wants it enough.