Re: [FH] Dollars per credit

Rob H wrote
>How many carriers does the USN have now?  Better yet, how many
non-combatant
>ships does the USN have?  I suspect that if you add up the
equivalent costs
>of all USN vessels and squadrons (aircraft), you may end up
with a figure
>closer to the 186,000 points rather than the 4200 level.
>
>Okay, maybe mass is not really the right item to be basing this
on.  I 'd
>actually look at this porblem a little differently--in that FT
ships are not
>direct analogs of current ships.  In other words, I wouldn't go
by tonnage
>but by crew size.

I was noticing that.  A supercarrier (Jeanne d'Arc) would be
approximately the equal of our current carriers but Jeanne d'Arc
masses something like 250kt whereas current CVA masses 90kt.
One the other hand a Jeanne d'Arc has a crew of about 260
officers and crew (plus fighter wing and marines) whereas a
modern carrier crew is something in the neighborhood of 5000 (I
don't recall if that includes air wing or not).

Therefore we see the total mass and the price per ton
increasing, but the crew requirements decreasing.  Presumably
this is because crew salaries are expensive and it's cheaper to
automate than add another crewman.  This would imply:
a) a relatively low unemployment rate, which means the world
isn't all that overpopulated; or
b) the characteristics (either physical requirements or
education) for a naval crewman are difficult to find and tend to
make him valuable in other fields;
c) in a tight labor market, military forces will tend to be
small, well equipped and professional.