HSLA 65 carrier weight-reduction study

Million-dollar study Newport News did for the Navy on substituting 65 ksi HSLA steel for traditional 36/50 ksi. Tom's example of the "materials are 10% of manufactured cost" rule playing out in a Navy procurement study.

Around 2000 they gave a million-dollar contract to Newport News Shipbuilding to do a feasibility study: what if they used a 65 ksi strength steel rather than a 36 ksi or 50 ksi steel, which was traditional shipbuilding? What if they went to a higher-strength steel — how much weight would they save, and what would be the total savings? At that time HSLA-65 steel cost about a dollar a pound, two thousand dollars a ton for the plate. They determined that manufactured, it would cost them ten dollars a pound to fabricate the steel. The material cost was ten percent. I could have done that for less than a million dollars. I would have given them that report for half a million. It's just a rule of thumb, and these rules of thumb are not bad.

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