Aircraft Carrier ( Medium ) The Aircraft Carrier ( Medium ) ( CVV ) was an American design for a conventional - powered ( i . e . non - nuclear - powered ) aircraft carrier proposed in the 1970s . It was to be smaller and cheaper than the contemporary nuclear - powered " Nimitz " class . A single example was planned , but was not built , with further " Nimitz " - class carriers built instead . Development and design . In the early 1970s , the United States Navy , following the doctrine of Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo Zumwalt for larger numbers of smaller and cheaper ships , initiated design studies for a " minimum - cost " carrier of 50 , 000 – 60 , 000 tons . The new design was planned to be much cheaper than nuclear - powered carriers ( a cost target of $ 550 millon was set in 1972 ) but still be suitable for replacing the ageing s . Work on the project ( designated T - CBL ) was stopped however , when the US Congress made statements encouraging all major warships to be nuclear - powered , and in 1976 an order was placed for a fourth nuclear - powered . Later that year , however , US President Gerald Ford cancelled the order for the fourth Nimitz , stating that instead , two CVVs , medium - sized , conventional - powered carriers which were expected to mainly operate V / STOL aircraft would be built . The existing T - CBL design formed the basis for the new CVV , this being of the required size , while capable of operating all existing conventional carrier aircraft ( this proved important as the hoped - for supersonic V / STOL fighters did not come to fruition ) . The CVV carried a smaller airgroup than existing supercarrier s ( i . e . about 60 compared with about 90 for the nuclear - powered " Nimitz " class or the conventional - powered s ) and had two steam catapults rather than four and three arrestor wires instead of four . The CVV also had a less powerful power plant , with steam turbines fed by six boilers generating in a two - shaft arrangement , compared with the delivered to four shafts of the larger carriers , giving a speed of compared with over . While slower than earlier carriers , this was still sufficiently fast to keep up with carrier task forces . Not all of the design features in the CVV were less capable than earlier carriers , however , as the carrier was planned to have improved protection for the ship ' s magazines and to be protected against under - keel explosions . The Carter administration from 1977 onwards continued with the CVV program , by now expected to cost $ 1 . 5 billion per ship compared to $ 2 . 4 billion for a Nimitz , vetoing congressional attempts to vote $ 2 billion towards construction of a fourth Nimitz , although plans for a second CVV were abandoned . When it was realised that a repeat of the USS " John F . Kennedy " , the last conventionally powered large carrier to be built would only cost about $ 100 million more than the CVV , while being much more capable , the Navy and the Secretary of Defense Harold Brown recommended that a repeat Kennedy be included in the 1980 shipbuilding program instead of the CVV , but this was rejected by Carter , partly based on the lower life - cycle costs of the smaller ship with its smaller airwing . A fourth Nimitz , the USS " Theodore Roosevelt " was authorised in the FY 81 budget , however , and the election of Ronald Reagan meant that defense budgets were no longer strained , meaning an end to the CVV .