Another Ship For The 21st Century

Many people have wondered why the Seawolf-class submarines have hull numbers that are out of whack; following the last Los Angeles class sub -- USS Cheyenne (SSN 773) -- you have USS Seawolf (SSN 21), USS Connecticut (SSN 22), and USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23), and then USS Virginia resumes the traditional numbering scheme with SSN 774. (My 4th ever post as a blogger discussed this discrepancy.)

The Navy has had a few "21" ship programs over the last several years, all dealing with ships (of that class) "for the 21st century", in the Navy's shipbuilding vision: SSN-21, DD-21, and, last but not least, CVN-21. (The "SSN 21" program, as you know, was replaced by a new "submarine for the 21st century", the Virginia program.)

Over at Strategy Page, they've got some neat drawings of what CVN 21 is projected to look like. The drawing that explains the new capabilities is here, but the rendering of the ship in the water just looks cool:

And notice how they're not throwing away decades of tradition by monkeying with the hull numbers.

Going deep...