Why do many countries want to build nuclear carriers because they burn so much money?

Someone once made a calculation, taking the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in active service in the United States as an example. The average annual maintenance cost of an aircraft carrier is about $4 billion, while the average annual maintenance cost of 10 ship is about $40 billion. Russia's annual military expenditure is about $50 billion, so you can imagine how expensive it is to maintain the normal operation of an aircraft carrier.

In addition, because the aircraft carrier itself is huge, it is easy to become an enemy target, so it needs to cooperate with a series of ships such as frigates, submarines and cruisers in any case, and the weapons and equipment installed on the deck of the aircraft carrier and carrier-based fighters are also inevitable expenses. However, although it costs so much to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, why do many countries, including China, build it?

The author carefully searched online and found that there are actually three core reasons. Reason one: nuclear power itself is an advantage. We know that the biggest advantage of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is nuclear power. Because it uses nuclear power, with its excellent kinetic energy system, it can travel to any sea area in the world, and nuclear power is more durable. As long as it encounters any crisis at sea, it can go to the battle site as quickly as possible to give support.

The second reason: conventional nuclear submarines have to build huge boilers and use fuel to generate electricity. Once the nuclear power plant is put into use, the place where the boiler was originally built will be saved, and part of the saved area can be used to improve the life of the crew. On the one hand, it can also carry more carrier-based aircraft fuel, which is a very good choice.

Reason 3: Any country that uses a conventional aircraft carrier needs to build a large fuel supply station if it wants to go to another unexplored place, because if the aircraft carrier runs out of fuel at sea, wouldn't it be a joke? The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier does not need to build any fuel station at all, and the fuel can reach 700,000 nautical miles at a time. This excellent endurance alone has envied many countries.