Flattops come with benefits

China has developed its first aircraft carrier by refitting Varyag, an old Soviet flattop. But it has left some people worried whether the country's economic growth will continue to be strong enough to support the building of aircraft carriers in future and whether such a move will create enough economic benefits.

An aircraft carrier reflects a country's economic strength, technological development level and equipment manufacturing capacity. The cost of building an aircraft carrier depends on factors such as its quality, standard and design, the level of technical research and development and labor cost. It also depends on the era, building period and a country's economic and industrial development levels.

International experience shows that building aircraft carriers imposes a rather high demand on a country's economy. For example, a US Nimitz-class aircraft carrier costs about $4.5 billion. The maintenance cost during its 50-year service is about $12 billion, and the cost of fuel, about $6 billion. The maintenance cost of other vessels in an aircraft carrier's formation is about $7 billion, and about $20 billion is needed to replace the shipboards twice. If we take devaluation and technological reform into consideration to be 20 percent of the overall expenditure, the cost of a Nimitz-class flattops during its 50-year life cycle would be about $60 billion, that is, $1.2 billion a year.