I came across a
RAND report on the subject of naval vessel price inflation. It is nearly 20 years old but I suspect the essentials haven't changed dramatically. Interestingly CVNs show the lowest cost growth presumably because labour costs are a larger component than for other types and the weapon system inflation component is much smaller as the air component is not part of the ship cost but is the major weapon system. Fighter aircraft show an annualised growth of 9.3% over the same period which is very similar to naval vessels. A comparison was made against passenger vessels which showed a similar rate of cost growth, this was partly attributed to the growth in size of cruise vessels over the period.
CVN inflation was the lowest in the table below, submitted by retired CNO Admiral Vernon Clark USN in his evidence to Congress.
